


Offside Trap

by shrimpette



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Sports, Fluff, Football | Soccer, I should change fandoms, M/M, Misunderstanding Plot, Some Humor, but sns is life, you know the drill
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2018-11-18 02:46:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 49,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11282157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shrimpette/pseuds/shrimpette
Summary: Sasuke and his team are returning from a match. People question the nature of Naruto's and his relationship (what relationship?).





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [buzzoff](https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzoff/gifts).



Sasuke yawned and moved to put away the book he was reading. Unfortunately, Naruto’s head was resting on his lap, Naruto was sprawled on the entirety of the backseat in the couch, and there wasn't really a way for Sasuke to hide the book without waking the blonde up. And the moron did deserve his rest. Their team won the game, and Naruto was partially the reason why. 

Sasuke sighed. At the beginning of the school year Naruto and he competed for the position of the team captain. In the end, it was Naruto, who got it. Despite the fact that when they started high school, Sasuke had been considered a prodigy, a certain choice for the team captain, a regular, and Naruto was... Naruto. He spent half the season benched, and whenever he got put on the field, he'd screw things up. Like scoring an own goal. 

But then he got better. Infinitely better. He'd made Sasuke self-conscious of his skills. Sasuke had to train harder than ever just to keep up with him. And it seemed that Naruto's goal was to get better than Sasuke. He said so himself. Like a million times. In second year, Sasuke reluctantly accepted him as his rival. 

Sasuke had however no idea when exactly they became friends. They hated... alright, they _didn't_ hate each other but they definitely didn't _like_ one another. Naruto was annoying, and he disliked Sasuke for no reason whatsoever. So they fought. Constantly. 

Sasuke once shared his lunch with Naruto because they were about to play an important match, and the dumbass forgot his, and at that time he was a regular, and they couldn't afford to have a hungry moron roaming the field, and it was _necessary_ , and after that Naruto actually thanked him—through his teeth but still, and... they were still fighting after that. 

Later on, Sasuke was scouted by some creepy dude, who promised Sasuke to make him the top scorer, to put him on a team, which was _sure_ to win the championships, which was playing matches against college students, which was playing matches against the team Itachi was on. And if beating Sasuke was Naruto's goal, beating Itachi was Sasuke's. 

Naruto freaked out. Totally lost it. 

He'd accused Sasuke of being a traitor and a coward, and of taking the easy path, and so on, and so on, and Sasuke wasn't too impressed by this, so he just ignored it. 

Then Sakura, a girl from his class, approached Sasuke, and told him she was in love with him, so he should stay for her. Sasuke considered it one more reason why he should leave. 

Then the girl begged _Naruto_ to make Sasuke stay. It was rather cruel. Naruto’s crush on Sakura, however hopeless it was, was pretty well-known throughout the entire school. Naruto agreed anyways. 

He asked Sasuke to stay but it didn’t make Sasuke want to stay. 

So why did he? 

He was supposed to change schools at the beginning of the third year but he didn't. 

Maybe because Naruto got so much better during the second year. Maybe because Naruto told him he would fight tooth and nail to keep Sasuke. Maybe because Naruto promised him he'd get as strong as Sasuke needed. That they would win. That they would keep winning. That they would get on the same team in college, and that they would defeat Itachi or whomever Sasuke wanted _together_ because they were partners. And that later on they would get on whatever team together, and that they would make it win world championship. 

For some reason, Sasuke believed him. 

Still, it didn't explain _why_ Naruto got so comfortable with him that he’d always end up with his head on Sasuke's lap whenever they were returning from or driving to a game. It didn't explain why Sasuke wasn't bothered by it or even allowed it. It didn't explain why the both of them ignored the rest of their teammates, when they were making fun of them for doing so. 

And it definitely didn't explain why Sasuke was now trying to avoid waking the moron up. 

He didn't like being confused, so he frowned and shook the dumbass awake. 

„W-what do you want?!” Naruto yelled at him. 

„Get off me,” Sasuke ordered him. 

„I don't wanna,” the blonde whined, rubbing his stupid sleepy face. „Where do you even want to go, like, we're on a bus—„ 

„I don't have to explain myself to you, get off me,” Sasuke barked, shoving the moron off. Naruto almost fell on the floor. He sat next to Sasuke, looking ready to fight him. 

„Why would you do that?!” he demanded to know. „You're such a dick sometimes,” he wailed, sitting as far away from Sasuke, as he could, and rested his head against a window. „This sucks,” he complained as his head kept hitting the glass. 

„I'm not your pillow,” Sasuke informed him. 

„I bet you're just being cranky,” Naruto huffed in response. „I can return the favor if you want,” he offered, tapping his knee in what he probably considered an inviting gesture. Sasuke merely raised his eyebrows at him. Sleeping with his head on Naruto's lap sounded absolutely ridiculous. „Your knee's fine, right? I mean, I should have something in my bag—„ 

„It's fine,” Sasuke replied in icy tone. Some guy fouled him like five games ago. Naruto still kept asking if everything was okay. Sasuke was pretty certain the dumbass valued his legs more than he did him. He reached to his bag to hide the book away. 

Well. That was that. Now Naruto could as well resume his sleep. But Sasuke definitely wasn't going to tell him this. It would've been beyond embarrassing. What, was he supposed to pat his leg, and tell the dumbass to get comfortable? Hell no.  

„The next match is going to be on Valentine's Day,” Naruto breathed out. „I guess the girls at school will be devastated,” he let out an offended snort. „I bet they've already set up a Facebook page for those, who want to confess to you to keep track of who's going when,” he continued. „I wonder how they decide who's going first? Do they fight for the position or—„ 

„Shut up,” Sasuke pleaded. 

„Dawww, don't worry, _captain_ , everyone knows that Sasuke already has someone _special_ ,” Kiba announced in an obnoxious voice. He too had been competing for the team captain position. He never stood a chance. Sasuke glared at the boy peeking at them from the seat in front of them. 

„Eh?!” Naruto made a questioning noise. Sasuke just frowned at the intruder. He was well aware of what was coming next. „Who is it?!” 

„You, you moron,” Sasuke enlightened him. „Kiba here thinks we're a _couple_ ,” he muttered. 

„But we’re not,” the blonde mumbled out in confused voice. „Why would you—„ 

„Why wouldn't he,” Shikamaru chimed in from his seat three rows ahead of them. He sounded as if he was just woken up from an eternal slumber. Lazy fucker. To Sasuke's great surprise, and Naruto's greatest displeasure, Shikamaru was their team manager. Advisor. Or something like this. Naruto claimed it should've been a cute girl but Shikamaru definitely wasn't a girl nor was he interested in being a girl. Well, Naruto was somewhat right. Some of the other teams had girls as their managers. Whenever the dumbass saw one, he would send a pained look towards Shikamaru. Sasuke didn't really care. But he did wonder why someone as lazy as Shikamaru signed up for extracurriculars. Then he realized that Chouji, Shikamaru's (only) friend, was on the team. 

Apparently, it was just for company. Well. Shikamaru was a pretty good manager. He was usually able to think up a viable strategy and notice their opponents' weak points. 

Sasuke hummed under his nose. What if that knee injury was more serious? Would've he stayed on the team anyways? He probably— 

„We're both dudes,” Naruto pointed out, sounding as if it was a great surprise that they were both dudes. 

„So?” Shikamaru inquired. 

„ _So_ neither of us is a girl,” Naruto replied. Naruto was dumb. Seriously dumb. It was a miracle he was getting passing grades. Sasuke probably needed to significantly lower his standards if they were going to go to the same college. Because they _were_. This much was certain. 

„You have to go a cram school,” Sasuke said. 

„What?” Naruto mumbled out, looking absolutely confused. 

„Nevermind,” Sasuke replied, deciding that saying _I'm not going to some shitty college just because you're a total moron_ right now would’ve kind of proved Shikamaru's point, and he didn't want to prove any stupid points. He’d say this _later_. When they'll be alone. Which was going to be today because Naruto was supposed to stay the night at Sasuke’s.  

Sasuke massaged his temple with straightened fingers. Okay. Perhaps they really were acting weird. Other guys were just returning to their homes but Naruto's parents were away for work, and Naruto's mom was adamant about not letting the blonde to have the house for himself ever since that party, and... 

But _why_ did he have to stay at Sasuke's? 

He had other friends. He should've spent the night at their place. It wasn’t that Sasuke minded having Naruto at his home, it was more about stopping people from spewing this nonsense. Because _he_ could ignore it but Naruto? Naruto wouldn't be able to live this down if he was to be labeled, gods forbid, gay. 

„What do cram schools have to do with neither of us being a girl?” Naruto asked his stupid question. 

„Nothing,” Sasuke hissed in reply. The dumbass opened his mouth to speak again but Kiba was faster. 

„Would you date Sasuke if you were a girl?” 

Naruto just stared at the other idiot, visibly unable to visualise such a concept. 

„No, that would've been rather pathetic, like, everyone and their cousin is after Sasuke,” he eventually mumbled out. „Besides, Sasuke doesn’t like girls—„ 

Sasuke swatted the moron on the head because he deserved it. 

„I've never said I _don’t_ ,” he muttered. He _didn't_ but there wasn't much to like, all the girls he knew were just trying to get a date with him, and he never cared about any of them, and he had no idea why he'd ever be interested in going on a date with them if they weren't able to have a normal conversation with him, and he seriously didn't have time for something this silly and _boring_. 

„Well but you _don't_ ,” Naruto pointed out. „I, for example, would've went out with like every single girl that confessed to you, they were super cute,” he said. 

„Then ask them out,” Sasuke hissed. 

„Yeah, Naruto, you're the team captain now, you're popular enough to fool some poor girl into thinking you're dateable,” Shikamaru agreed. 

„Hey,” Naruto yelled in offended voice. He let out a few angry huffs and glared at Shikamaru's shitty pineapple ponytail. 

„Yeah, Naruto, you should totally do that,” Kiba snorted. 

„I don't have time for dating,” the moron announced. „I have to lead the team to victory or a certain asshole is going to murder me,” he chirped. „I mean, I promised Sasuke victory, and I never go back on my word—„ 

„Gayyy,” Kiba yelled. 

„Yeah, gay,” Shino agreed with him in a much quieter voice. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Shino? Fucking _Shino_? The guy, whose voice Sasuke keeps on forgetting because he talks once a blue moon? _He_ had to take part in this conversation? 

„Why don't _you_ ask a girl out and tell us how it went?” Sasuke growled at them. 

„Because I don't want to ask just _any_ girl out,” Kiba replied, hitting himself on the chest with his fist. „I know I look like a total player—„ 

„You don't,” Naruto interrupted him. 

„You really don't,” Shino agreed. 

„Et tu, Brute?” Kiba wailed, pointing an accusing finger at his best friend. His best friend was Shino. How the fuck Shino had any friends? „Well, anyways,” Kiba coughed and cleared his throat, „I'm going to ask Hinata out. I'm just waiting for a good opportunity,” he stated, emanating an air of superiority. 

„Hinata’s crushing on Naruto,” Shikamaru pointed out in a bored voice. 

„She's _what?!_ ” Naruto asked, almost choking on words. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. Hinata _was_ crushing on Naruto. Everyone knew it. 

„She's given you chocolate, remember?” Shikamaru inquired, sounding as if he was afraid Naruto's had a stroke. „And she's asked you out—„ 

„ _When?!”_ Naruto shouted. „And she gave chocolate to Kiba too, so—„ 

„She gave chocolate to Kiba because they're childhood friends,” Shikamaru stated in unapologetic tone, audibly not caring about shattering Kiba's hopes and dreams. „And she asked you out last year after the spring tournament,” he continued. 

„Nah,” Naruto laughed, sounding... relieved. „She asked the whole team out for a BBQ,” he said. 

„Chouji's on the team, and _sorry Chouji_ , but no-one in their right mind would want to pay for Chouji,” Shikamaru yawned. 

„You do,” Chouji disagreed. 

 _„No-one in their right mind_ ,” Shikamaru repeated. 

„Oh,” Chouji grunted. Chouji didn't _look_ like a soccer player. His weight fluctuations were... unbelievable but he was either thin or fat, there were no in-betweens, and right now Chouji was fat. Sasuke preferred it when he was fat because thin Chouji was constantly tired while fat Chouji was unstoppable. The opposing teams usually underestimated him, probably thinking that someone this chubby was going to be slow but Chouji _wasn't_ slow. Sure, he needed some time to gain momentum but when he did get it... well, Sasuke wouldn't want to be the poor fucker, who would happen to stand in Chouji’s way. He had a one-track mind, and it was to deliver the ball from their side of the court to the other. He did this marvelously. Unless he was thin. Then he was... kind of useless. 

Sasuke felt guilty whenever the team was chipping in for food because, really, every one of them was paying for his food and for some part of Chouji’s food but it seemed that Chouji was healthier when he was fat. And they were chipping in for meat and vegetables, and _good_ food, it wasn't _chips_ , so— 

„And this is why we chipped in,” Naruto retorted. 

„You’ve made her pay like half of the bill,” Shikamaru pointed out. 

„Well, she did invite us,” the moron mumbled out. „She's on the cheerleading squad, wasn’t it just girls thanking us for good game?” 

„No,” Sasuke replied. 

„Then why didn't you _stop_ me?!” Naruto whimpered. „She must think I'm a total dick—„ 

„We were broke,” Sasuke answered. „We used up most of our money when we were away on the tournament,” he explained. „And we thought _you_ were buying until we've already ordered the food,” he continued. „By then it was too late. Weren't you surprised that Hinata was the only one to appear there?” 

„I just assumed that they couldn't afford paying for us _and_ themselves,” the blonde mumbled out. Sasuke snorted. 

„Don’t worry, her father is loaded,” Shikamaru sighed. „It was probably like one week of her pocket money—„ 

„Two months,” Kiba corrected him, sounding pissed off. „Don’t assume she’s swimming in dough just because her dad's rich,” he muttered. 

„Shit,” Naruto cursed. „I owe her money,” he realized. 

„And apology,” Sasuke supplied. 

„Yeah, that too,” the blonde whispered to himself. „I'm such a twat—„ 

„Language,” Shino scolded him. Shino didn't like swearing. Shino... Sasuke didn't know anything about Shino. Sometimes he would forget that Shino was even _there_. Luckily, so did opposing teams. 

„It's _your_ fault too,” Naruto blurted out. „We're all chipping in and paying Hinata back,” he decided. 

„Count me out,” Sasuke yawned. 

„Yeah, me too,” Shikamaru agreed.  

„ _Guys_ ,” Naruto whined. „Don’t be like this,” he complained. „You can't just drop a bomb like this on me and expect me to pay,” he mumbled out. „I'm _broke_ , and I wasn't the only one eating back then, like, you _all_ ate—„ 

„The first-years didn’t,” Haku reminded him. Haku _was_ a first-year. He was... quick and had a great aim. A fucking prodigy in the making. Sasuke hated his guts. Naruto had been trying to hit on the poor boy. Well, back then Naruto had no idea that Haku was a boy but _still_ — 

Why Sasuke even cared? 

„Okay but the rest of the team should totally pay up,” Naruto breathed out. 

„Is _nobody_ going to ask me about asking Hinata out?” Kiba complained. „I thought you guys were my _friends_ , this is _huge_ , and you're all like _hahaha remember that time when Naruto was a total douche_ —„ 

„She's going to reject you,” Shino answered him. 

„Don’t say that,” Naruto protested. „I totally support you,” he exclaimed, giving Kiba a thumbs up. He had that from Lee. Lee already graduated but he was a great sportsman. Sasuke’s learned a lot from him. He refused to admit that he did, though. Lee was rather goofy, it was difficult to treat him with the respect he deserved. Naruto didn't have such difficulties. He openly cried when Lee approached them to say his goodbyes after the graduation ceremony. 

„Well, then you should finally come out of the closet,” Kiba blurted out. „Because she's never going to a date with me if she thinks—„ 

„What closet?!” Naruto asked. „I'm _not_ in any closet, for fuck's sake, guys, it's not even funny anymore,” he mumbled out. „Sasuke, tell them,” he pleaded. 

„We're not dating,” Sasuke relented. 

„Well then _start_ ,” Kiba demanded. „We _all_ know it's going to happen but I have just half a year to ask Hinata out because then she's going to college, and I'm _not_ , and all the guys there are going to be all over her, so just _stop tormenting me_ ,” he scowled. 

„ _Sure_ ,” Naruto hissed. „Sasuke, _darling_ , will you _please_ go on a date with me, so Kiba can ask a girl out?” 

Sasuke swallowed, his cheeks getting unpleasantly hot. Was he blushing? No, he couldn't be. He _didn't_ blush. Period. It was stupid to even think that he would _blush_. 

„No,” he coughed. 

„Well, that was pretty heartless,” the moron complained. „Here you go, he openly rejected me, I don't stand a chance,” he pretended to let out a heavy sigh and be disappointed. Kiba just rolled his eyes at them, and _finally_ turned back. 

„What if it wasn’t so Kiba could ask a girl out?” Shino inquired. Sasuke let out an exasperated sigh, and Naruto kicked Shino's seat. 

„Don’t be stupid,” the blonde demanded. Sasuke turned his head to look through the window. Because watching street lamps and darkness was interesting, not because he didn't want anyone to see his face. At last, it seemed they were done with stupid questions. Sasuke breathed out, calming dow— 

He flinched when he felt a weight resting on his thigh. He side-eyed Naruto, who was lying on his back and watching him. Sasuke looked away. He felt ridiculous. It was Kiba’s fault. He couldn't wait until they would graduate and leave Kiba behind— 

They? 

He. 

He. Until _he_ would graduate and leave Kiba behind. 

„I feel like you'd leave me here sleeping if I wasn't lying on your leg,” Naruto stated in a hushed voice. 

„My mom would kill me,” Sasuke whispered back. 

„We'll have just one year to beat Itachi up in an official game,” the blonde said, visibly trying to stop himself from smiling. Sasuke was the only person in front of which the dumbass was trying to hide his smile. Sasuke didn't reply. „Everyone's sleeping,” Naruto hurried him. 

„I thought you wanted to sleep,” Sasuke muttered. 

„Nah,” Naruto chuckled. Sasuke glared at him. The obvious question was _then why are you lying on me_ but... What was the point? „I'm serious, Sasuke, we have just _one_ year. Later on Itachi is just going to be all like _hahaha foolish little brother, now that I'm not playing football_ _anymore_ _, you'll never defeat me—_ „ 

„You suck at doing Itachi’s voice,” Sasuke sighed. 

„Sasuke,” the moron whined. „I'm serious here, we’ll have to become regulars and we’ll be _freshmen_ ,” he said. 

„You've said we’ll do it,” Sasuke reminded him. „I thought you never go back on your word,” he added. 

„I'm _not_ but it means we have to _train_ and you want me to go to some cram school,” Naruto huffed. „You just want me to waste my time, so _you_ could train, and then you'll get better than me—„ 

„I _am_ better than you,” Sasuke interrupted him. Naruto just kept glaring at him. „We can go together,” Sasuke eventually offered. He fished for his phone and started writing a message. He didn't press the send button, he just handed the phone to Naruto. 

 _I'm not going to some shitty college just because you weren't able to pass some stupid exam_  

Naruto gave him a pointed look. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him. The blonde frowned, showed him tongue, and started writing something on Sasuke's phone. Then he _did_ hit the send button. Sasuke raised his eyebrow even higher. Naruto pocketed Sasuke's phone, took out his own when it beeped, wrote something, hid his own phone, and closed his eyes, visibly getting ready to sleep. Sasuke's phone beeped. 

„I need my phone back,” Sasuke muttered. Naruto opened his eyes just to roll them. 

„Here,” he sighed, and handed Sasuke his phone. 

Sasuke unlocked it, and went into the messages. He stared at it. He could see only the last message, and the last message was from Naruto to him. 

 _Yes_  

„Yes to what?” Sasuke inquired. 

„Just open it, you jackass,” Naruto breathed out, his eyes closed again. Sasuke felt a strong urge to shove the dumbass off his legs but then the dumbass could get hurt, and he needed the dumbass to _not_ be hurt. 

So he opened the conversation he's had with Naruto, and read the text Naruto sent to himself in Sasuke's name. 

Sasuke stared at it for the longest time. Then he put the phone into the pocket of his sweatpants, and once again looked through the window, refusing to turn his head to look at Naruto. He squeezed the phone, refraining himself from smiling. 

 _Will you go out with me?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Offside Trap: A technique used by defenders to put attacking players in an offside position, by moving quickly away from their own goal to leave attackers offside.
> 
> ///
> 
> EDIT: hey hey hey  
> this thing used to be a one-shot, so, if you liked this chap, you might as well stop reading because it's a finished story (in my book)
> 
> but i'm a pathological liar, so when i say something is a one-shot, it's going to be multi-chap  
> hey hey hooray  
> chapters are super short, 3-4k words long because I think it works pretty well for this particular fic? and it's a perfect length for me right now because i'm a productive member of society(tm) now, and this means i'm no longer freelancing, and this sucks but it pays pretty well, so :Y


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was trying to stop myself from writing this but i have no restraints and nobody helped me

Naruto slowly trudged after his friend, who's been barely acknowledging his existence ever since he's read that text. This couldn't be good. He was supposed to stay the night at Sasuke's, and he _knew_ that Sasuke didn't really have a choice in the matter because now their moms were involved, and Naruto _really_ didn't want Sasuke to feel weird because of him. Naruto breathed in and ran up, using Sasuke’s shoulder to slow down.

“It was just a joke,” he lied because what else was he supposed to say? They were friends, they were _best friends_ , they had plans together, and, apparently, Sasuke was willing to build his future around the two of them staying together, so the _least_ Naruto could do was _not_ weirding him out.

“What?” Sasuke gritted through his teeth.

“That text. It was a joke,” Naruto said. It kind of hurt. Sure, he _was_ telling the other guys they were stupid and whatnot for thinking that Sasuke and him could ever be involved romantically but Sasuke was… not exactly introverted but still, he was rather _private_ , and he probably hated most of the people he knew, and he was probably also sick and tired of people gossiping about his (nonexistent) love life.

“Good,” Sasuke hissed at him.

“What bit you?!” Naruto barked at the other boy before he could stop himself. He had no idea _when_ he fell for Sasuke but it must've been ages before he came to this devastating realization. The entire time he's been in high school was all about Sasuke. At first, Naruto just wanted to get better than the smug cocky jerk, and Sasuke was constantly on his mind, and it kind of stayed this way.

Because, seriously, Naruto had to admit that he used to be pretty much _obsessed_ with Sasuke. He was all Naruto was willing to talk about, and _yes_ , back in the days it used to be something along the lines of _can you believe this jerk_ but still, it was about _Sasuke_. Sometime later he'd start most of his sentences with _Sasuke and I_ , and it was Naruto’s mom, who noticed it, and that was embarrassing as hell.

But it _was_ Sasuke and him. They weren't joined at the hip but they as well might've been.

They were walking to the bus stop together, they were sitting next to each other on the bus, their desks were next to each other (it wasn't until the second year of high school that Naruto started to feel grateful that both of their family names started with a U), they were eating lunch together, they were doing all the group projects together, they were training together, and a vast majority of their passes was to each other, and… really, it felt _weird_ when Sasuke wasn't around.

“Nothing bit me,” Sasuke sighed. Naruto huffed in reply. “I'm tired,” the brunette added with some hesitation. As if being tired after a football game and a long drive home was something unbelievable.

“Whatever,” Naruto breathed out. “You were just acting weird, that's all,” he added. “I just thought it would've been funny if we did go out. Imagine the guys' reaction,” he forced himself to laugh.

“Very funny,” Sasuke muttered.

“I bet it would totally freak them out if one of us got himself a girlfriend,” Naruto whispered.

“I guess,” the other boy agreed.

“It would freak _me_ out,” the blonde chuckled, and frowned immediately afterwards. Shit. No, no, no, no, _no_. Something like this was the worst possible thing to say at a time like this. He opened his mouth to take it back but Sasuke was faster.

“Me too,” he grumbled.

“Yeah,” Naruto breathed out. He couldn't think of a single more thing he could say, so he resigned himself to walking the rest of the way in silence since he knew he couldn't count on Sasuke to fill it with small talk. Because Sasuke wasn’t doing small talk. He generally barely did any talk. Naruto cracked his neck, and crossed his arms, trying to keep himself warm. Sometimes, Sasuke was being difficult.

* * *

Sasuke unlocked the doors to his house, and moved sideways to let the blonde into his house. Naruto wasn't waiting for any verbal invitation anyways, he simply barged into Sasuke's home as if he fucking lived there. Sasuke swallowed a snort. Perhaps Naruto really almost lived at his house. Some time ago, Sasuke's mom stopped complaining about _the state of the house_ (as far, as Sasuke was concerned, it was always clean but whatever), so Naruto kind of lost his status as a guest.

“Everyone's already asleep, huh?” Naruto mumbled out, looking around the dark corridor. The blonde shrugged his shoulders and headed towards Sasuke's room, once again _not_ waiting for an invitation. Hell, he did that in complete darkness. Apparently, he didn't need any lights to navigate through the house.

“I guess so,” Sasuke answered, following after Naruto. Well, it was three a.m. They went upstairs, and finally reached Sasuke’s room. He breathed in, forcing himself to believe that nothing’s changed.

Because it hasn't.

Naruto was still Naruto, he was Sasuke's best friend, and this was how it was going to stay. It was exactly what Sasuke's expected, it was what he _wanted—_

“I'm starving,” the moron whined, throwing himself on Sasuke's bed.

“Wait till morning,” Sasuke barked back, lying next to the blond idiot. The first time Naruto’s stayed at his place, he had asked if Sasuke had some food stashed in his room. _Gross_. Back then, however, Naruto was a _guest_ , and Sasuke's mom taught him to feed guests, and that was a fucking disaster. Naruto had been sleeping on futon because two boys sleeping in one bed had seemed like a terrible idea but he practically begged Sasuke to let him under the covers because Naruto had _nightmares_. Because he always had nightmares if he fucking ate before sleeping. It was ridiculous. Sasuke still had no idea why he even agreed to sleeping in one bed. He was probably too surprised and sleepy to think straight.

But this was how it stayed. The next time Naruto came to spend the night at his place, they put the futon away before it could be used. The next time there was no futon.

And, for some reason, Sasuke was in charge of making sure Naruto _wouldn't_ eat before sleeping. Because the moron was too dumb to think for himself. Even if they were playing away games, and even when the whole team slept in one room. Sasuke snorted at the memories and rubbed his forehead.

“What are you laughing at?” Naruto inquired in a sleepy voice, so Sasuke kicked him because they still had to brush their teeth, and couldn't just go to sleep. Naruto kicked him back, but neither of them put their heart into their kicks.

“You,” Sasuke answered.

“Your whole sense of humor is centered around laughing at my misery,” the blonde complained and yawned.

“At least I'm not sending any stupid texts,” Sasuke growled at the other boy before he could stop himself.

Hearing that the text was a _joke_ was… unpleasant. Even though the person Sasuke was _most_ disappointed with was himself for not even considering such a possibility. After all, he was there, when Naruto asked him to tell everyone that they were stupid for thinking that—

_He_ was stupid.

Of course it was a joke. What else could it have been? Naruto sent that stupid text after they spent half an hour convincing the rest of the team that they were seeing things that weren’t there.

Sasuke _knew_ there was nothing. Naruto was just a touchy feely person, and to him it was no difference if it was Sasuke or Kiba, or even fucking Shino. The other guys simply wouldn't allow it—at least not as much of _it_. Sasuke did. And to him it did matter _who_ it was. That should've been the first fucking clue but Sasuke overlooked it or maybe even intentionally ignored it. Naruto was to him more special than he was ever going to be to Naruto.

The moron had other friends. Sasuke probably became Naruto's _best_ because the rest had some other _best_ friends. And maybe because Sasuke was better at soccer than them. Because he was, it was obvious, everyone knew it, and to Naruto soccer was as important, as it was to Sasuke.

It wasn’t that Sasuke didn't have other friends—

Alright, maybe he _didn't_. He had people he could hang out with but that was pretty much it.

Still, he was fine with it.

…

He _had_ _been_ fine with it. But then Naruto had to go ahead and implant this ridiculous idea in his head, this ridiculous idea that _perhaps_ they weren't just friends.

“You're just treating yourself too seriously,” the moron barked at him.

“I'm _not_ ,” Sasuke disagreed.

“Oh _really_?” Naruto questioned, turning on his side and resting his head in hand, probably just so he could look down on Sasuke. His blue eyes bored into Sasuke’s black ones. “You had _no_ idea it was just a joke until I told you it was,” he pointed out.

It was cruel.

Before, it was merely unpleasant but _this_ was cruel. The dumbass might've meant it as a joke, and he probably expected Sasuke to somehow protest but then… then Sasuke _didn't_. Naruto had to realize that Sasuke _wasn't_ against going out with him. And this had to freak him out.

But, even if it did, Sasuke never expected him to be so _blunt_ that he'd not only make sure Sasuke knew it was _never_ going to happen but he'd also make fun of him for _thinking_ that it could happen.

“You've always had an unhealthy fascination with me, what else was I supposed to think?” Sasuke sneered at the blonde, forcing himself to smirk. The moron's face paled. Good. Sasuke had no desire of being the only hurt party. Especially since it _wasn't_ him, who’s started it. It was the moron's fault. It was all his fault.

“And yet it's _you_ , who's going to follow _me_ into a university, and not the other way around,” the boy snapped, raising his voice. Sasuke's hand moved to cover his mouth but it stopped halfway through.

No more. No more touching.

“Forget it,” Sasuke muttered at him. “I’m done with stooping down to your level,” he growled, and got up from the bed in one swift move. “Don’t wait for me,” he added as he left the room, deciding to sleep in Itachi’s empty one. Naruto didn't even _try_ to follow him. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t care.

* * *

 

Sasuke was woken up by a sound of faint knocking, feeling like shit. He grumbled, rubbed his face and glared at the intruder. Then his face immediately softened. He sent an apologizing smile towards his mom, who was standing in the doorway.

“Did you lose?” she asked instead of greeting him. Sasuke raised his eyebrow. What?

“No, why?” he inquired.

“Naruto's already left,” she informed him. Sasuke frowned. He didn't want to think about the idiot. “You can still catch up to him if you hurry up,” she added and tilted her head. “I don’t know what you're fighting about but he looked miserable—“

“I don't care,” he snapped. He breathed out, and sat up on the bed. “Sorry,” he apologized. “I didn't mean to—“

“I see,” she murmured and sighed. “Did he screw up at the game?”

“ _No_ ,” Sasuke replied. He didn't feel like confiding in his mother. He loved her but… it was embarrassing, and his mom couldn't possibly help him. Because what was she supposed to do? Take out some gay ray and fire it at Naruto?

“You don't have to tell me anything,” she started, “but please, think this through. If it's something serious—I'm sorry. However, I know you well enough to know that you’re perfectly capable of letting something stupid escalate. So,” she paused, “just know that it might not be worth it. You're good friends, don't let something minor ruin it,” she concluded and left the room before he could even answer her. Sasuke let out a heavy sigh, and plopped down on the bed.

They weren't friends. Not anymore.

* * *

 

Sasuke was avoiding him, it was obvious to Naruto, and it was obvious to everyone else. The guys were at first just making fun of them, saying that it was a lovers' quarrel, and that they needed some good makeup sex, and Naruto was trying to laugh it off but Sasuke was getting visibly pissed off whenever he'd hear something of the sort.

Because nobody's ever said anything about lovers' quarrel or makeup sex directly to Sasuke. Naruto had no idea if the guys were too afraid to do so, or if Naruto was simply more approachable, or if they just didn't respect him as much. But, after a few more days, the guys were openly worried.

It didn't help anything.

Sasuke was ignoring him as much, as he could. He'd take an earlier bus or listen to music on his headphones and refuse to take them off. He's stopped talking to Naruto. He's changed his jogging grounds. He wasn't replying to any texts and wasn't picking up his phone. Apparently, to him Naruto ceased to exist.

Even during training, whenever they were playing a mock match, Sasuke would pass the ball to anyone but Naruto unless he was _forced_ to do it. Sasuke wasn't really a good _team_ player. However, he worked great in a duet, and so far it's been Sasuke and Naruto, but now it was Sasuke and _Haku_. Sasuke hated Haku but Haku was making the most of the passes. It was a good, strategic decision. But it still hurt.

Even though Sasuke and Naruto's synergy was better, because _really_ , they were practically reading each other's minds or this is how it felt like, and that was awesome and _unbelievable_ , but it seemed that Sasuke was able to have a pretty good synergy with _anyone_ , who didn't suck at sports. It was a pretty devastating realization. They clearly weren’t as special, as Naruto used to think. What was even worse, Sasuke didn't need him.

At all. Sasuke, a person, who most definitely wasn’t a team player, excelled at a team game. Just like this. He'd probably excel at any freaking sport if only Itachi played it. Itachi playing it was a must, Sasuke wasn't really interested in anything that Itachi hasn't done before, and it seemed that the sole purpose of his existence was to do everything better than his brother.

Now that Naruto was thinking about it, it was one hell of a miracle that Sasuke had been considering going to a university below his league just to stay with Naruto but it was possible that this was just one extra layer of challenge. Something along the lines of _I can make anyone win_.

The worst thing was that Naruto wouldn't be able to use his position as a team captain to force Sasuke to talk to him even if he wasn't considering it a foul play. There was absolutely nothing to complain about. Sasuke was giving his best, and, if he didn't have a choice, he _would_ pass the ball to Naruto. He wasn't _looking_ at him, though. It felt impersonal. Before, whenever Sasuke would pass the ball to him, Naruto felt pretty much _obliged_ to make it score. Now he was reduced to a freaking pinball plunger. Before, Sasuke would get angry whenever Naruto messed up. Now, he didn't care.

It was ridiculous how Sasuke acting like a normal human being was freaking Naruto out. It was ridiculous how the team, instead of feeling better because now there was nobody flipping out on them for no reason whatsoever, had their morale sink low, low, so low that it freaking reached and passed the center of the earth.

They were supposed to play a match in three days, and Naruto was seriously considering benching one of the best players they had, the freaking heart of their offense. Because he was acting _normally_.

Which, for him, wasn't normal.

Naruto sighed, waiting for the showers. They've just finished their training, and Naruto would usually go first with the other third-years but ever since that _talk_ , Naruto was busying himself with random shit, so he'd have to shower with the first- and second-years. It was only fair, Naruto supposed. Sasuke probably didn't want to be watched naked—even if Naruto never did it anyways because it would've been rather creepy. At least _he_ thought so. Sai didn't share his beliefs. And Kiba was an exhibitionist. At least the younger boys were fairly normal.

He needed to talk with Sasuke. He had no idea if he wanted to apologize or just yell at the bastard but, most of all, he needed to break the silence. Right now he was close to benching _himself_ because benching Sasuke would've been a dick move, and Sasuke would _never_ forgive him but… if Naruto was to be _objective_ , there was no reason to bench him, too. The team needed their captain.

The team needed Sasuke.

The team needed them to be _normal_ again.

* * *

 

“Narutooo,” Kiba whined, and that was a surprise in itself because ever since Naruto had been titled the team captain, Kiba refused to call him anything else. In his lips, the word captain sounded like an insult but it was so exaggerated that it was impossible to get offended by it. Sasuke, on the other hand, hasn't called Naruto a captain even once. It's always been an idiot or a dumbass, or moron, and sometimes it  was just his name, and now it was _nothing_. Naruto's become a _you_ , a nameless entity Sasuke didn’t want to have anything to do with.

“What?” Naruto grunted, poking his food with chopsticks. He used to eat together with Sasuke but Sasuke was now hanging out with Suigetsu. Naruto's had no idea just how big a part Sasuke's played in his life. The only time Naruto wasn't thinking _oh hey Sasuke should be here_ , was when he was freaking sitting on the toilet.

It was ridiculous. And dumb, and stupid, and Naruto was no longer surprised that everyone thought they had been going out. To be honest, if Naruto was to find himself a girlfriend, he'd hate it if she was spending so much time with him because, really, people had their limits, and something like _this_ would've been tiring.

It wasn’t so with Sasuke, though.

“Naruto,” Kiba barked. Naruto jerked up, realizing he hasn't been listening.

“Yeah?” he mumbled out, hoping Kiba was going to repeat himself.

“The game is two days from today,” the boy scoffed. “It's going to be Valentine's Day. I don't care whose fault it is, you're grabbing whatever the hell he likes, going to him, and saying _how much_ you're sorry, and _how much_ you've screwed up—“

“I—“

“Nuh uh, like I've said before, I _don’t_ care whose fault it is,” Kiba interrupted him. “It's going to be _your_ fault because it doesn't look like _he_ is going to apologize—“

“He doesn't want to talk to me,” Naruto growled at him. “In case you didn't notice. And I can't just tie him up and _force_ him to listen—“

“I seriously don't care about your sexual fantasies,” Kiba scowled and frowned. “Look, it's okay if you're both into it but—“

“Kiba, we were _friends_. Nothing more,” he sighed. He had to use past tense. Were. Were. _Were_ friends.

“Naruto,” Kiba breathed out, “we need to win this game because we need to leave the group, and this is our safest bet,” he stated. “So we need you to be focused. Both of you. Maybe he wants to be something more than just friends with you,” he suggested, stranded so far away from the truth that he couldn't get any further. “Ask him. If this is what he wants, then _this_ is what you're going to give him—“

“You're not my pimp,” Naruto barked at him.

“Naruto,” Kiba hissed, visibly getting impatient with the blonde, “for fuck's sake, _do_ something. You're the captain, you're his friend, this is _your_ responsibility,” he muttered. “And, frankly, I don't care if you have to suck him off to fix this—“

“Why don't _you_ suck him off?” Naruto blurted out in a hushed voice. They were in _class_ , there were people around them, hell, _Sasuke_ was probably about to come back to the classroom, and talking about sucking Sasuke off was literally the last thing Naruto wanted to talk about.

“Naruto,” Kiba whispered, leaning close to him, “if I thought it would win us the game, I'd seriously consider it,” he growled. “But I have a _hunch_ that Sasuke doesn't really like me,” he yapped.

“Just piss off,” Naruto breathed out. “I'll fix this,” he promised. “Without sucking anyone off,” he added. “Go,” he pleaded. “Before you decide to suck off our team, their team, and the referees,” he snorted.

“Fuck you,” Kiba sighed and ruffled Naruto's hair. “And seriously, apologize to him, you can always fight _after_ the game,” he suggested, and with that he left. Naruto massaged his temple, and glared at the doors, willing Sasuke to _come_. He didn't. Not until the bell was ringing, and it was way too late to talk to him, that was. Of course.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fyi, there won't be any smuts in this  
> i know they're technically legal  
> but i'm like ten years older than them, and this feels like pedophilia, and i'm not doing it  
> and i'm okay with 10 years age difference but  
> they're in high school  
> and they're /so/ innocent so i'm like nah
> 
> if you want to read some smuts, i have works with smuts, so head over there  
> this shit is a smutless vanilla
> 
> I have no idea how many more chapters it's going to have  
> maybe ten  
> maybe twenty  
> who knows
> 
> oh, and i'm sure you already know this but it makes me super happy if you comment or leave kudos, or subscribe, or just let me know that you're enjoying this? because, you know, the statistics say that most of you is just going to read this and leave, and only you can prevent forest fires


	3. Chapter 3

"I thought we've been over this,” Kiba yelled. Naruto rubbed the back of his head. Kiba had thrown a ball at him, and it hurt, and Naruto was strangely grateful that Kiba hadn’t _kicked_ it into the back of his head. Because this was the kind of jerk Kiba was. 

“Are you out of your mind?!” Naruto shouted back. 

“See, and now you're talking with me, it's not this _difficult_ , is it?” Kiba questioned, a shit-eating grin on his face. 

“First you tell me to suck him off,” Naruto whispered, afraid that someone was going to hear them, “and now you want me to play dodgeball with his head?!” 

“Hey, whatever works,” Kiba replied. “I'm serious, Naruto, what the hell are you doing here?” 

“Well, he doesn't _want_ to go home with me, so—“ 

“Are you going to _wait_ for him to want to spend time with you?” Kiba gawked. “Fuck, you're more stupid than I thought,” he muttered. 

“It's not like I can _make_ him do anything,” Naruto retorted. They were already done with their classes and their training, and _normally_ Naruto would be waiting for the bus to come back home together with Sasuke but Sasuke was avoiding him, and it would've been… Naruto had no idea _how_ exactly it would've been but it was clear that Sasuke had no wish of finding out _how_ , and Naruto knew better than to go against his wishes because Sasuke was rather, well, prickly when someone did. And if now Sasuke was being _difficult_ , Naruto didn’t want to find out how Sasuke would be if he started to be _impossible_. “Seriously, I'd love to see _you_ try,” Naruto growled, throwing the ball back at Kiba. 

“I _might_ ,” the boy grunted back. Z The blonde glared at him. “Yeah, if I don't see you talking before the school ends tomorrow, I'm going to have a heartfelt talk with Sasuke,” he announced. 

“This is blackmail,” Naruto complained. “What would you even tell him? There's nothing for you two to talk about—“ 

“Gosh, I don't know, I guess I'll tell him you've asked me to talk to him because you've chickened out,” Kiba chirped back. “And that you wanted me to tell him he's sinking our chances at winning the game—“ 

“He's _not_ ,” Naruto protested. “Kiba, it's just going to make everything worse,” he sighed. 

“I don't know, he might get fired up to prove you how wrong you are,” Kiba disagreed. 

“I,” the blonde paused, realizing how little he really cared about the game. It was more about not disappointing the others and keeping his promise. It felt… weird, unnatural. If Sasuke and him weren't fighting, this game would've been _the_ most important thing in Naruto's life. “I'll talk to him, I promise. Tomorrow,” the blonde stated under his breath. 

Because he had no idea _what_ he should say. Well. He should probably apologize for pointing out how ready Sasuke's been to follow him. And for making it look as if Naruto either didn't care or wouldn't have done the same. They were close friends. And their bond was… _stronger_ than normal people had. There were lots of things about their relationship, which seemed completely natural to Naruto but would've been considered weird and embarrassing if he had to compare them to others. 

And it was fine if Sasuke wanted him just as his friend, it was completely fine. True, Naruto was certain that if he was ever going to get involved with someone else, that relationship would've been a shadow of _what could've been_ with Sasuke but it wasn't Sasuke's fault. 

And Sasuke, considering, how weirded out he must've felt, acted pretty cool about his best friend having feelings for— 

Sasuke thought it was a joke. When he still believed it to be true, he wasn't talking to Naruto. 

… 

Was he just embarrassed or perhaps he simply had no idea how to react, or… 

If, for example, Kiba had confessed to Sasuke, Sasuke would've… well, he would've told him to go fuck himself. He didn't say it to _Naruto_ but Naruto was his friend, and Kiba _wasn’t_ , and— 

Naruto breathed in. He wished he had someone he could consult on this but he had no-one. He wasn’t certain whether he wanted to even come out to Sasuke anymore. He definitely couldn't do it right now because now… it just wasn’t the right time for this. And later? What was the point of Sasuke knowing if he wasn't interested? There was none. Coming out to him could mean that Naruto wanted something to _change_ but he didn't really want anything to change. 

On the other hand, assuming they _could_ go back to how they were before… it wouldn't be fair if Sasuke didn't know. Naruto was touching him _a lot_. And sometimes they shared a bed, and… Sasuke deserved to know. Just… not now. Later. Later, later, after they'll make up, after they'll forget that _this_ has ever happened. 

“Why is he even angry at you?” Kiba inquired, startling Naruto, who practically forgot that he was even talking with the other boy. “You know, I know that he's pretty much _always_ angry but it's the first time when he’s _ignoring_ you,” Kiba continued, probably completely unaware of how he was sending Naruto into a state of panic. Because Naruto had been assuming that Sasuke and he were going to simply return to what they were before but yes, Kiba was right, it was the first time when Sasuke was _ignoring_ him, and not calling him a stupid moron. 

“I have no idea,” Naruto lied. Kiba laughed at it. Back in the days, the two of them were both hating on Sasuke but Naruto grew out of it, and Kiba didn't. 

“Do you think it's because we've said you two should be dating?” Kiba asked. Naruto stared at him, surprised that Kiba would even _consider_ that it could've been _his_ fault. “Have you _ever_ considered dating him?” 

“What,” Naruto choked. 

“He's an ass but you two get along, so I guess you don't mind him being an ass,” Kiba continued, unfazed by Naruto's blank stare. What was he even supposed to do now? _Lie_? Kiba was his _friend_ , and he was _kind of_ supportive. “But I have to admit that I have no idea if you swing this way—“ 

“I seriously doubt he wants me to ask him out on a date,” Naruto mumbled out. At least he managed to avoid answering the question. “He’s barely able to stand having to stay in the same room as me—“ 

“Because of all that unresolved sexual tension,” Kiba chortled, and Naruto sent him an ugly look but he actually wanted to punch the idiot. 

“You're being stupid,” he decided. 

“Yeah, Sasuke and _sexual tension_ somehow don't go together, huh?” Kiba kept laughing. 

“I'm starting to think you're actually after him, and not Hinata,” Naruto glared at him. “You keep talking about having sex with him. Do you want my blessing? Is this what it's all about?” 

Naruto's lips cracked in a fake smile as Kiba's face became red. Maybe it _was_ what it was all about. There was this stupid belief that if two people acted like they hated each other, it meant they're actually in love but neither wants to admit it— 

Yeah, _right_. It might be so for Kiba, but not for Sasuke. Was Kiba interested in Sasuke? He kept bringing him up, and perhaps he simply wanted to test waters, and check if Sasuke was still single, and— 

Naruto shook his head, chasing away unwanted thoughts. Getting jealous over _Kiba_ of all people was stupid. If there was _anyone_ Sasuke could be possibly interested in, it was _Naruto_ , and— 

Sasuke definitely wasn't interested. He didn't straight up _reject_ Naruto but it was obvious how uncomfortable he was after that stupid, _stupid_ text message. Naruto wished he'd never sent it. It all started with that moronic text. And back then Naruto was actually _proud_ of himself for coming up with such an ingenious idea. Idiot. He was a helpless idiot. 

“If I was after _him_ , I wouldn't be trying to make you two not hate each other,” Kiba pointed out. “I would be with _him_ , nodding whenever he'd call you an incurable moron,” he continued. “So go to him, tell him you're an imbecile, let's win this game, let's leave the group, win the tournament, and _then_ you can go back to whatever you're doing. We can’t afford having you two _like this_ ,” Kiba explained in an obviously falsely calm voice. “Right now you're playing barely above average. You can do better,” he huffed and left Naruto alone without bidding him goodbye. Not that Naruto really minded. He's been wishing for this conversation to end for quite some time now. 

* * *

Sasuke flinched when his mom entered his room and pulled out his earphones. 

“You'll go deaf if you'll listen to it _this_ loud,” she warned him in a worried voice. “This warning pops out for a reason, you know,” she complained. 

Sasuke wanted to ask her what she wanted but he had no idea how to voice his question without making it sound rude, so he just stared at his mother, hoping she was going to tell him why she's entered his bedroom anyways. Eventually, after she gave up on hearing something along the lines of _sorry mom, I’ll be careful_ , she heaved a heavy sigh and sat on Sasuke’s bed, resting her head in her linked hands. 

“Honey,” she started, “did Naruto do something you didn't like?” 

“Yeah,” Sasuke admitted, and his mom's face paled. Then Sasuke realized how bad it must've sounded. “Not like _this_ ,” he clarified, looking away. 

“Thank goodness,” she breathed out, relief clearly visible in her black eyes. 

“He wouldn't do something like this,” Sasuke mumbled out, feeling ridiculously embarrassed. 

“Honey, people rarely _expect_ it to happen,” she lectured. “Can you tell me what he’s done?” she asked, her voice soft and gentle. 

“There’s no need,” Sasuke protested. 

“I don't mean to push you but remember that you can tell me anything,” she pleaded. “I can keep a secret,” she assured him. “And I won't judge you,” she promised. Sasuke just stared at her, refusing to say a word. It was humiliating. Admitting _why_ he was this upset would've been humiliating because _really_ , making someone have so much power over him that they were able to make him upset over something this trivial was simply dumb. 

The main reason why he was angry was that to him Naruto was more than he was to Naruto. _This_ was what it all boiled down to. To Naruto, he was merely a teammate, perhaps a casual friend. Nothing special. But Sasuke had allowed himself to think of the moron as someone special, and now he had to pay for it. It wasn’t even Naruto's fault, not really. It was just that having any kind of relationship with the blonde would… hurt. It wasn't them versus the world, there was no _them_. Sasuke was good at football, and Naruto was having fun with him. That was it. It wasn't much. All the promises they've made to each other didn't mean as much, as Sasuke had thought they meant.  

So how was he supposed to say it out loud? How was he supposed to confess to being this _stupid_ to his mother? 

“Honey,” his mom coughed, “you’re still developing and there might be some things that _confuse_ you,” she whispered and cleared her throat, audibly embarrassed beyond belief, “remember that your father and I both love you very much, and even if your father doesn't always show it, you mean _a lot_ to him,” she stated in a shaky voice. 

“ _Mom_ ,” he complained. 

“We both love you _very much_ ,” she said, unfazed by his whining. “I want you to know that whatever it is that you’re feeling towards Naruto, it's completely _natural_ , so if one day you'll decide that you want to tell us _something_ , know that we've already figured it out, and we fully accept you, and love you, and I hate the fact that I feel like I need to assure you that we’ll love you because there shouldn't be a reason to do it but—“ 

“Mom,” Sasuke interrupted her, his face getting hot from embarrassment, _“_ _what_ have you figured out now?” 

“Ah,” she gasped, sending him a warm smile, “we know that you and Naruto are more than just friends,” she confessed. Sasuke blinked. Raised his eyebrow. Rubbed the back of his neck, trying to remember how talking worked like. Because there _had_ been a time, when he knew how to move his lips and tongue to form words. 

“We’re not,” he eventually rasped back.  

“Oh,” his mom whispered, frowning in worry, a single crease appearing between her eyebrows, “is _this_ why you're not talking?” 

“I,” Sasuke choked on words, uncertain about how to proceed because, really, he wasn't expecting to have _this_ kind of talk, he wasn't mentally prepared to question his sexuality, and he was pretty confident that if Naruto hadn't brought up this whole issue, Sasuke would just ignore it completely, so feeling hurt because of it was ridiculous, and that _wasn't_ the reason they weren't talking, not really. “It’s complicated,” he stated in a hushed tone. “I don't want to talk about it,” he added in an apologetic voice. He jerked when his mom tightly hugged him, practically choking him in her embrace. 

“Oh, honey,” she cooed, and Sasuke felt _so_ grateful that his brother wasn't around to see it because their mother definitely was doting on Sasuke, and sometimes Itachi was making fun of him for this even though there wasn't much that Sasuke could do about it. Not that he actually minded it. He simply preferred it to happen when Itachi _wasn't_ around. 

Now that he thought about it, Naruto too used to call Sasuke a momma’s boy. To his merit, he's never done it when the other guys were around. And there generally wasn't too much bite in his words. He _was_ saying it to annoy Sasuke, sure, but it felt somewhat _intimate_. 

Because there weren't too many people who knew just how doting Sasuke's mom was. To be honest, it was just his family and Naruto. Sasuke's dad had used to say that she was spoiling her youngest son but, eventually, he gave up and stopped commenting on it. Itachi was giving Sasuke a pointed look whenever it happened. Naruto… he would repeat whatever Sasuke's mom did or say immediately after she'd leave them alone, pretending he was her. It was annoying, stupid and ridiculous, but more often than not Sasuke had to refrain himself from laughing.  

“I'm okay,” he assured his mom. She smooched him on the forehead. “I'm really okay,” he added. 

“Remember that I'm here if you want to talk to me,” she reminded him in soft voice. “Or, if you prefer it, your dad is always ready to talk with you—“ 

“ _No_ ,” he interrupted her. He loved his father but he _definitely_ didn't want to have _this_ kind of talk with him. His mom chuckled at his protest. 

“Sure,” she agreed, breaking the hug and stepping back. “Naruto actually came here, he said he needed to talk to you. I've told him to wait downstairs,” she informed him as if it was the most normal thing to do. She must've seen the look on his face because she raised a finger as if to tell him to keep quiet. “Give him a chance, sweetie, he might surprise you,” she pleaded. 

“I'm _busy_ ,” he protested, pointing at his notebook and unfinished homework. 

“Sometimes, friends are more important than math,” she insisted with a smile, and at that point Sasuke knew that he wouldn't be able to convince her otherwise no matter how hard he tried. 

“This is the last time,” he sighed. “No more letting him in,” he demanded. 

“Of course,” she agreed. Sasuke sighed again, rubbing his closed eyes with straightened fingers. He heard the doors close, and, few seconds later, open again. He opened his eyes to stare at Naruto. Who looked absolutely terrified. Weird, he had no reason to be terrified. 

“What did you want?” Sasuke inquired in a dry voice. 

“Well, like, we need to _talk_ ,” the blonde mumbled out, closing the doors to Sasuke's room. Normally, he'd throw himself on Sasuke's bed, his arms crossed behind his head, his legs dangling from it. Sasuke would throw the ball that was usually lying underneath his desk at Naruto, and tell him to not get this comfortable. Naruto would ignore him and make a show of how comfortable he was. This time, the blonde just stood there. 

“What about?” he asked. They've already had one heartfelt talk. They didn't need any more. 

“Uh, well, you see, like, we’re about to play an important game,” Naruto started, immediately pissing Sasuke off. “And, er, after that… I'm sorry,” he said. Sasuke raised an eyebrow in a mute question. “That thing I've said was uncalled for,” Naruto continued. “Sorry,” he repeated. “So can you please stop ignoring me? Because we're going to lose if you won’t.” 

Sasuke glared at the other boy. 

“I'm sorry, _captain_ , I’ll try to—“ 

“Stop calling me that,” Naruto protested. “Can't we just go back to being friends? Why are you even angry at me? You _know_ I didn't mean it,” he whined. 

“Yes, I know,” Sasuke growled at him. What was the point of reminding him of something he was painfully aware of? 

“Then _what_ is your problem?” Naruto barked at him. 

“I don't have any problems,” Sasuke answered, crossing his arms. He was already tired from talking to the idiot. “I've just realized that there's no point in continuing this… friendship,” he explained. 

Naruto merely stared at him, slowly blinking his eyes. Sasuke bit the inside of his cheek. 

“Why?” Naruto asked, sounding dead. 

“If it wasn't for you, I would've been a part of the team, that currently holds the champion title,” he pointed out. “I was considering wasting my time and money on cram school I _don’t_ need just to go to a college, that's below my capabilities,” he continued. “That was stupid of me. There's no reason for me to stoop down to your level—“ 

“Holy shit, Sasuke, if _this_ is what it's all about, then I'll just cram like crazy and we can go wherever you want,” Naruto hissed. Sasuke wasn't able to stop his eyes from widening in surprise. He wasn't expecting something like _this_. Naruto hated cramming. And while he did have a thing for making promises, which seemed impossible, he really _was_ doing everything in his might to keep them. What was more, he actually managed to keep a vast majority of them. So _this_ idiotic declaration wasn't just something to make Sasuke change his mind. Naruto meant it. If he's said it, he _meant_ it. “Like, seriously, there's no need to freak out this much, if you want something, just _ask_ , I simply thought you didn't care,” the boy yapped. 

“Why are you so obsessed with me?” Sasuke muttered in a hushed voice. It was unbelievable. If Sasuke wasn't so taken aback by Naruto's words, he would've considered them creepy as fuck. Because it _was_ creepy. People shouldn’t be able to just say something like this as if it was _nothing_ , as if they were discussing the weather. 

“Because you’re my best friend, because I've already promised you we’ll win, and that we'll defeat your brother, and now you're just making it difficult for me,” Naruto breathed out. Sasuke opened his mouth to reply but _what_ was he supposed to say, _how_ the hell people were replying to something like _this_? “Are you still fixated on this whole gay thing?” Naruto inquired with a heavy sigh. Sasuke had no idea if he nodded or not. He didn't even know if he was _fixated_ on _this whole gay thing_.  “Let's just forget it, and pretend that it's never happened,” the blonde suggested, sending Sasuke a wide, obviously fake grin. His blue eyes looked tired and worried. There were dark shadows underneath them. It seemed that Sasuke wasn’t the only one, who's had trouble sleeping these last few days. 

“I can't just _forget_ it,” Sasuke replied, straightening his back. 

“We don't need this, Sasuke,” Naruto complained. Only he was able to say something this cruel immediately after making declarations of friendship. So Sasuke was supposed to _forget_ about this part of himself, _this_ was the thing that Naruto wasn't going to accept. “Look, I'll stop touching you altogether, and I’ll keep taking showers with first- and second years, and it should be okay,” the blonde argued, looking annoyed. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the idiot. 

“I can't just _forget_ it,” he repeated. 

“Oh, for fuck's sake, stop being such a jerk about it, ,” Naruto exclaimed. “Get over it, we have a game to win,” he added, glaring daggers at Sasuke. As if it was _his_ fault. 

“If you think that someone else is going to play better than me, bench me,” Sasuke taunted. He knew there wasn’t such a person. Besides, they've already faced off this team, they weren't a big threat. So there was no need to bring their top game— 

Sasuke mentally cursed. Why the hell their _top game_ had to be them two cooperating? 

“I'm not benching you for this game,” Naruto gritted through his teeth. “But if you're not giving it your all, I _will_ send you off the court,” he threatened. Ah, so they were already past pretending that they were friends. 

“I hope it's going to work out for you,” Sasuke hissed back. “Now get the fuck out, and stop coming here,” he added. “I'm tired of your nagging—“ 

“I pray to gods that one day you'll wake up and realize what a selfish and heartless jerk you are,” Naruto growled. “If you decide to take that stick out of your ass, give me a call,” he grumbled, turned on his heel, and left Sasuke's room, slamming the doors. A few seconds later Sasuke heard the moron yelling his fake, cheery goodbyes. 

Sasuke took a deep breath, sighed, and threw himself on the bed. If Sasuke wasn’t able to get over _this_ , their team might lose. He's already lost his best friend. He needed to at least keep his team. Sasuke sent one hateful look towards his unfinished math homework. He'd have to ask someone to let him copy it before lessons because he wasn't feeling like doing it anymore. Probably Sakura. She had many flaws but she was also an incurable nerd. Sasuke sat up on the bed and looked through the window. It was already dark and cold outside but he still had enough time for a jog. 

And gods knew he needed to clear his mind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg  
>  finalllly  
>  in the next chapter, they will finally play some football lol  
>  and we'll dwell into Naruto's family life as well  
>  and there will be more people because I'm already sick and tired of Kiba, and I bet that you are too :D
> 
> ///  
>  ok, story time, I remember when I was like, idk, 14 yo, and majority of my and other girls' PE was unihoc, while the boys were mostly playing football (some of them were even on our school team), and the only rule about the unihoc that our teacher ever taught us was to never raise your staff above knee level but otherwise you're free to do anything, so we'd just slam into each other (one time, when we were playing in the gym, one girl slammed into me so hard, that I fell into a wall and lost consciousness for a few minutes XD but I got back on the field immediately afterwards because, apparently, I've said I'm all good [I didn't remember it at all XD]), and there was a foul after a foul, and we never cared, like, we were just playing? but one time the boys' teacher was away, and our was feeling lazy, so he was all like, haha, boys vs. girls, and let's play football, and we just decimated them.
> 
> because, we'd TOUCH them while running, and they were throwing themselves on the grass, pretending to be hurt
> 
> and our guy was used to us fouling so he was just ignoring this
> 
> and then it was a bloodbath
> 
> they started fouling us back but we were used to it, so if we fell down, we'd just get up and keep running after the ball, and their instinct was to lie down and wait for the referee to notice it
> 
> so this is a story about how brute force won with skill
> 
> it's not something i recommend, and we were clearly in the wrong because fouling is bad, and whatnot
> 
> but gods, i had so much fun back then :'D


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> watch out for stupid team names

"It's cold," Shikamaru complained, bundling himself up in his sweatshirt and coat. Of course it was cold. It was freaking February. Naruto had no idea what else Shikamaru could've expected. Well, at least him and other guys would soon warm up from all the running, so the cold wouldn't be bothering them as much while Shikamaru had to sit on the bench and be cold for the entire game but...

"I like it when it's cold," Haku replied, stretching his arms and getting ready for a warm up. They were all wearing black long-sleeves underneath their green football uniforms, some of the guys were wearing the long socks, some had leggings under their shorts, and Naruto was hoping that this time nobody was going to get a cold. Because a running nose and sport didn't mix well. Generally, being sick and sport didn't mix well. He knew it best because _last time_ it was him who got sick.

And this time catching a cold wasn't the only thing that could sink their chances of winning. This time, they had Sasuke being a total jerk, Kiba believing that Sasuke being a jerk was the end of the world (as if it was the first time that it's ever happened), and a whole team, which believed that Kiba was onto something. Naruto sighed, and slapped his face to give himself courage.

Normally, Sasuke and he would be wing-backs but he decided to give his position to Haku, and play sweeper. This minimized the amount of interactions with Naruto that Sasuke would've had to enter, and it was probably the only way they could win. This meant that Haku wasn't going to play forward, so his position had to be given to Konohamaru, who was normally a defender, and it was all big mess, and Naruto hoped that his decision was right because Asuma, their coach, was way too relaxed for Naruto's liking because if there was a right time to panic, it was _now._

They had to change their entire strategy, and the only guys, who kept their original positions, were Sasuke as a wing-back, Shino and Chouji as defenders, and Sai as a goalie.

Sai was actually an insane choice for a goalie because he kept taunting the enemy forwards and wing-backs, and it was a miracle that he hasn't been forced to leave the field because of how obscene he was even _once_. Because Sai _was_ obscene, and they didn't really have another goalie. If Sai got sick, they would be screwed. Fortunately for them, Sai's never been sick. Even once. But he was a third year, so he would be leaving the team next year, and Naruto had _no_ idea, who would take his place. Hell, Naruto had no idea, who would take _his_ place. Probably Konohamaru or Udon. Maybe. Perhaps. He wouldn't know.

He was just guessing that next year the team would be more dependent on the couch, and less on their captain. At least Asuma was a decent coach. Kakashi was their club advisor, and he was either absent or had no idea what was going on. And, for the most part, he didn't really care. Naruto was guessing that Kakashi wasn't even certain what football was all about, and if someone claimed that they actually played hockey, Kakashi would have to think long and hard before remembering which club he was the advisor of. Because he _would_ remember it. Eventually.

And yet the guys loved him. Probably because he wasn't hiding his love for porn. Back in the days, it used to impress Naruto too. It wasn't until he's started his third year of high school when he realized that a teacher reading a porn magazine in the open perhaps wasn't _as_ great. Haku was saying it was creepy, and he was probably right.

Haku was right about a lot of things. He was probably going to become a team captain.

On the other hand, when Naruto had been a first year, nobody would even think that he had a chance of becoming one, so...

"Tie your hair," Kiba scolded Haku. As if it was his place to scold the boy. Naruto sent him an ugly look. Ever since that thing with Sasuke, Kiba acted like a co-captain, and Naruto wasn't certain how he felt about it. He was, however, certain how he felt about the tight bun Haku's tied his hair into. _Absolutely adorable_. Haku generally had a rather delicate physique, and at the beginning Naruto was afraid that something would happen to him but Haku was a genius, and nothing’s ever happened to him, no matter how much he's been targeted.

Just like Sasuke was a genius.

When it came to football, at least. Because Sasuke was also a freaking idiot when it came to interacting with other people. He'd say something mean and then be surprised that someone got upset because of it. Naruto had a thick skin and he _knew_ that Sasuke was an idiot. Others didn't. Well, Sasuke’s family did but his family was also the only group of people towards whom Sasuke was acting civil. Well, there was also Naruto's parents.

But that was pretty much it.

“Stop drooling,” Kiba whispered into Naruto's ear, startling him and making him jump.

“I'm _not_ drooling,” Naruto protested in a hushed voice.

“But you _are_ staring at him,” Kiba snorted, hitting Naruto's back with open hand.

“I'm staring at _people_ , he just happened to stand in my line of sight,” Naruto huffed. Because he _wasn't_ staring. Staring implied that he was following Sasuke with his eyes, and he _wasn't_. Sasuke just _stood there_ , and Naruto wasn't going to look away for no reason whatsoever. “Get ready for a warm up,” he ordered his team in a much louder voice. It was redundant because they already _were_ ready for a warm up but saying it out loud helped to get them to focus, and focus was a good thing. They needed focus.

“ _Aye_ , _aye_ , _captain_ ,” Kiba murmured.

“Just shut up, will you?” Naruto whined, warming up his joints.

 The team followed suit. They were all stretching, jogging in place, sidestepping, and, generally speaking, preparing their bodies for the upcoming game. After ten minutes of rather intense exercises, Naruto stepped forward, and faced his team. He was their captain. They needed him in his best form, and it didn't matter that he's been rejected by his crush and his best friend at the same time.

“We've already played against these guys,” he started, pointing at their opponents. “Back then we were weaker and had no idea what they were capable of. But we've won anyways,” he stated. “And today we're going to win again,” he said. “Don't underestimate them just because we've won, give it your best. They weren't just slacking off this entire time, they were training to _beat us_. But this time we’re playing differently, so if their strategy was to counter our usual formation, they're up for a disappointment,” he smiled. “Our girls aren't here with us today but I know they are cheering for us, so let's not disappoint them,” he concluded, deciding that the thought of cheerleaders was bound to fire some of the guys up. Especially on Valentine’s Day.

“Go Toads!” Chouji exclaimed.

Their team name _sucked_. There was nothing glorious about toads, and Naruto had no idea _why_ it had to be toads. Other teams had cool animals, like tigers, or snakes, or hawks, and they had _toads_. The most uncool animal ever. But they've won against all these tigers and birds of prey, and there was probably nothing more humbling than losing to _toads_.

Still, Naruto wouldn't mind them having a more epic name. Itachi was currently playing for the Dawnbreakers, and that was one hell of a name, and they were some stupid amphibians. No wonder Sasuke had been considering changing schools. Even the team they were facing off now had a cooler name.

Because really, Bloody Sharks sounded way more interesting than Angry Toads, and their uniforms had a cool, scarlet color, and Toads' were green, and there wasn't a color that was less aggressive than _green_. Even pink seemed more formidable.

Unfortunately for the Sharks, cool name and uniforms wasn’t even half as important as skills.

* * *

And at first their strategy worked. Kiba managed to score a goal in sixth minute, and Naruto was hoping they would be able to keep this advantage for the remainder of the game but Bloody Sharks decided to play dirty.

Their defenders were obviously targeting Sasuke, and this in itself wouldn't be so bad because Sasuke was used to being targeted, but it was clear that their opponents' plan was to force Sasuke off the field. And it seemed that they were trying to foul him.

Normally, Naruto would take Sasuke off the field because playing without him _was_ , contrary to popular belief, possible, and risking an injury was a much worse option than losing a game, and if there was something that Naruto _owed_ to his team as their captain, it was making sure they wouldn't get hurt. And normally, Sasuke would just accept his decision because he'd _know_ that it wasn't like Naruto wanted to punish him or annoy him, and everything would've ended up _well_ even if Naruto was aware of the fact that Sasuke would've considered bitching about being taken off a _must_.

Naruto heaved a heavy sigh after yet another player rammed into Sasuke while fighting for the ball. Sasuke's always refused to act more hurt than he actually was, so getting the opposing players off the field for their foul plays was pretty much impossible until they would _really_ hurt their wing-back. If Naruto was playing wing-back as well, he'd manage to take some of the attention off Sasuke but now it was too late for it. He was a sweeper, his main focus should be on not letting the Sharks get anywhere near Toads' goal. He was pretty much tied to the their side of the field, and he _hated_ it. Being a wing-back was tiring since, while being the offense, they also played defense, and they had to run _a lot_ but it was so damn satisfying.

Haku was fast and precise but his stamina, while still ridiculously high, was nowhere near Naruto's level. He'd get tired in the second half of the game. And then Bloody Sharks were going to destroy them.

Naruto shook his head, and gestured Asuma to call for a timeout. The coach relented, and they were going to have their first timeout after mere twenty minutes.

“Tired already?” Sai inquired, acting as if he wasn't freezing even if his red cheeks were telling a completely different story.

“Sasuke, Suigetsu’s going to take your place,” Naruto ordered, ignoring their goalie and his stupid question.

“ _What_ ,” Sasuke growled at him.

“Relax, man, I've kept the bench warm for you,” Suigetsu chirped. Suigetsu was… very uneven. Unreliable. Potentially good but… he wasn't Sasuke. Naruto knew he could depend on Sasuke, and Sasuke was a really versatile player, and this made him into a perfect wing-back, and now Toads had _two_ inexperienced wing-backs. Their only hope of winning was not letting the Sharks score. Otherwise, they were screwed, their offense formation was a freaking joke. Unless Kiba was going to give them one more miracle but Kiba was nowhere near as precise as Haku, and—

Everything was crumbling. And it all started with Sasuke. Sasuke, who was currently fuming at him, looking as if he was considering the best and fastest murder method. Sasuke probably too realized that they were screwed but he cared about his own health far less than Naruto did.

Sasuke was stupid like this. Not very good with long-term planning. To him, sacrificing his health to score one point and win a game was a pretty fair deal. So Naruto had to keep the stupid jerk from rendering himself useless for the rest of the season.

“Naruto's right,” Shikamaru chimed in in his bored voice, pissing Sasuke off even more. “You’ll end up injured if they continue to play like this—“

“Do you plan to take the whole team off the field?! Because you _do_ realize that they'll just target someone else,” Sasuke barked at them. Naruto looked away. Stupid bastard had a point. Still, risking that Sasuke could get hurt—

“Daww, Naruto's playing favorites again?” Kiba snorted. “Sasuke's right, he’ll be fine,” he said. “Let's get back there, we’re winning.”

Naruto took a deep breath. Accusing him of playing favorites was ridiculous. He would’ve done the same no matter who it was. “Sasuke,” he cleared his throat, unable to look the other boy into the eyes, “if it'll get any worse, I'm taking you off,” he said.

“You suck as a captain,” Sasuke murmured in reply, leaning back, and wiping his face with a towel. Naruto had no idea how to react to it. If it was anyone else saying it, he wouldn't let that person undermine his position like _this_ but it _was_ Sasuke. Sasuke's already told him he sucked as a captain but he's never done it in front of the rest of the team. He'd always wait till they were alone, and _then_ tell Naruto that he sucked. He'd also say _why_ he sucked, and what he should do to suck less. It was actually helpful. This time, it wasn't helpful.

“Yeah, your paranoia made us waste one timeout,” Kiba gingerly agreed. “Don’t worry, I'll keep your boyfriend from harm,” he promised, pressing his fist to his chest. Most of the guys laughed at the poor joke. Normally, Naruto would laugh too. This time, he just looked away.

“Kiba, shut the fuck up, and stay away from me,” Sasuke growled. Naruto breathed out and rolled his eyes. He'd never suspect that Sasuke was like _this_ , that he'd be _so_ annoyed by people insinuating he wasn't straight.

“Language,” Shino scolded Sasuke in his distant voice. Sometimes, Naruto was forgetting that Shino was even _there_. People generally kept forgetting about Shino. This made him into a pretty freaking good defender.

“Fuck off,” Sasuke sighed.

“Boys,” Asuma hissed and stood up, towering over them as if he still believed that there was somebody naïve enough to fall for his _ohoho I'm a strict teacher, respect me_ act. “We're winning by one point, it's a _good_ thing, so tell me why the other team looks happier than you do?”

“Naruto's paranoid,” Haku replied in a flat voice.

“Stop being paranoid, Naruto,” Asuma ordered. “And now go kick some asses, you don't need any more rest,” he added, sounding confident and powerful. Naruto wished he had Asuma's presence. He had a calming effect on people.

“Let's go,” he relented, casting one last worried look at Sasuke. He hoped he was being paranoid.

* * *

Sasuke panted, pressing his hand against his side. Some guy just rammed into him, sending them both to the floor, his hand landing on Sasuke's upper stomach, and it _hurt_. He'd be bruised, he'd be fucking bruised.

“Are you blind?!”

Sasuke turned his head to stare at Naruto running up to the referee with his hands raised, looking as if he was about to hit him. The referee _had_ to be blind or he was just pretending to be blind because he hasn't whistled even once. As if football was supposed to be a contact sport, as if pushing opponents was just a part of the game.

“Leave it,” Sasuke croaked but it seemed that his voice didn't reach the blond idiot. Sasuke cursed under his breath, and turned to jog towards him and stop him from doing something stupid but he stopped dead in his track when pain exploded in his chest. “Fuck,” he muttered. “Naruto,” he called out again, waving at him. He was guessing that one of his ribs was fractured. He probably needed to get off the court.

“They’re trying to fucking trample my player, and you're just standing here, being useless,” Naruto yelled at the referee, completely losing his shit. Sasuke wished he could strangle him. They were already in the second half of the game, and they were able to keep their advantage. The game was supposed to last just ten more minutes. They were _winning_.

What was worse, the game hasn’t been _paused_ , the ball was still in the game, and Naruto thought he had enough time to scream at the referee. Sasuke couldn't hear the referee's replies but his face was getting redder with every second, and it was clear that it was going to end badly.

Soon enough, the referee flashed Naruto a red card.

Moron. Fucking imbecile.

Red card meant that Naruto had to leave the field for the remainder of the game, and that he couldn't be substituted with another player. They would play ten versus eleven, and at this point Sasuke pretty much _knew_ that he had a broken rib.

However, while getting substituted when Naruto was still on the court, keeping everything udder control, was something acceptable, leaving the field _now_ sounded like the worst possible idea. It was just ten more minutes. They only had to wait their opponents out.

* * *

“Hey,” a tired voice greeted Sasuke immediately after he cracked his eyes open to see that he was in some white room, lying in bed. Weird, he should be on court, and not in _bed_. “Apparently, receiving a ball with your chest when you have a fractured rib is a rather stupid idea,” Naruto stated under his breath. “But what do I know—“

“Who won?” Sasuke interrupted him, earning himself an exasperated sigh and a shoulder shrug.

“We,” he reluctantly admitted. He was sitting on a chair standing next to a wall, pretty far away from the bed. Sasuke's never ended up fucking unconscious and waking up to Naruto keeping watch by his bed _but_ normally, Sasuke would've expected the moron to be way, way, _way_ closer. Well, obviously, things were no longer _normal_. They probably have never been normal. “Suigetsu scored another goal immediately after he substituted you,” Naruto said, sounding _unhappy_.

“He should be a regular,” Sasuke suggested, feeling his chest. He hissed in pain. Yup. Fractured rib. “Instead of Udon—“

“Suigetsu has better and worse days, Udon is reliable,” Naruto sighed. Sasuke didn't reply. The moron had a point. “I guess the guys are going to have a field day with us,” the blonde mumbled out. “Sorry.”

Sasuke snorted. Then he immediately covered his mouth with hand because he remembered that laughing wasn't really a part of being angry at someone. Naruto sent him a surprised look. He _was_ overly dramatic whenever he believed Sasuke to be hurt. And it _was_ funny. “What are you doing here?” he asked, mostly to change topics. He stared at the blonde, only now noticing how puffy his eyes were. He sent Naruto a questioning look but the blonde just looked away.

“I was waiting for you to wake up,” he answered. “The team is probably still celebrating. Do you need anything? Because if not, I'm calling Asuma,” he said. Sasuke shook his head. He was guessing that Naruto simply _had_ to stay with him because _someone_ had to, it had to be a third year, and Sasuke doubted that Kiba, Sai, Shino, Chouji and Shikamaru were interested in skipping celebrations in lieu of sitting by his bed and waiting for him to regain consciousness. “Oh, if you're _wondering_ ,” Naruto whispered in an icy tone, catching Sasuke's attention, “your rib _didn't_ puncture your lung or some other internal organs, so you're out of the field for _only_ three more _weeks_ instead of, I don't know, next few _months_ or the rest of your _life_ ,” he chirped. “So really, Sasuke, _good thinking_. We're all proud of you—“

“Are you playing in the next game or have you been penalized?” Sasuke growled. The dumbass escaped with his blue eyes. “ _Good thinking_ , I bet everyone's really proud of you too,” Sasuke barked. So now neither of them was playing. Luckily for the team, they’ve practically already finished the group stage, so the next game they'd _have_ to win was a month from now. Sasuke glared at Naruto. “Call Asuma,” he said, trying to sit up. It hurt. It hurt like a bitch but he wasn't going to give Naruto any satisfaction, any more reasons to let him say _I've told you so_.

The blonde rolled his eyes, took out a phone out of his sport bag, and left the room. Sasuke couldn't hear _what_ they were talking about but he doubted it was anything interesting. Naruto didn't come back. Some doctor entered the room a few minutes after the blonde left, handing Sasuke his discharge papers and saying that he was forbidden to play football for the next three to six weeks. Sasuke frowned. He remembered Naruto saying _three_ weeks. He was perfectly fine with _three_ weeks—

Then the doctor said that Sasuke wasn’t even allowed to jog. He could _walk_ , walking was good, and he could take deep breaths, and otherwise, he was fucked. No training. No training for three or _more_ weeks.

That was a lot. It was possible that he'd lose his position as a regular, that Naruto would—

He wouldn't.

Sasuke took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. It did nothing, he still jerked when he heard doors open again. This time, it was Naruto. The boy waited for the doctor to finish, stifled a laugh when a nurse made Sasuke sit on a wheelchair, took out Sasuke’s sport bag _out of nowhere_ , and followed after the nurse, who left the two alone on the hospital parking.

“I've already called your mom, and told her what happened but I'm pretty certain she will want to hear that you're alright from you,” Naruto murmured. “And I've turned off your phone, of course _after_ I told your mom about you being stupid,” he added, his voice just as monotone and disinterested. “The girls kept trying to reach you, I guess they thought you'd magically come to be if they bombarded you with calls and texts,” he sighed. “You should probably delete my finger ID from your phone—“

“What, are you going to go through my phone?” Sasuke muttered a question.

“I doubt I’ll ever touch it again,” the blonde replied. “But if you want to remove me from your life, you should go through with it,” he insisted. It was ridiculous. Sasuke rolled his eyes, and made a show of deleting Naruto's stupid fingerprint. As if it mattered. Still, considering how dumb the whole action was, it was unexpectedly… saddening. It felt absurdly final.

A cab stopped next to them. Naruto threw his and Sasuke's bags into the trunk, and sat next to the cabby. He was annoying. He was so, so, _so_ annoying. Sasuke let out an exasperated sigh, and stood up, refraining himself from doubling in pain. Then he had to open the cab doors and sit down again, and this time he wasn't able to stop a hiss from escaping his lips. Naruto shuddered but that was all the reaction Sasuke got from him. Well. Two could play this game.

Naruto told the cabby the address of their hotel, and they spent the rest of the way in silence. Sasuke wondered if he shouldn't have complained about pain to the doctor because the pills he was given _weren't_ working. He could just hope that he wouldn't have to think twice every time he wanted to change his body position.

About fifteen minutes later, they stopped in front of the hotel, and Sasuke _somehow_ managed to leave the car almost as fast as the moron. Naruto paid the driver, and took a deep breath, glaring after the leaving cab.

“Call your parents,” he reminded Sasuke in a tired voice.

“Why are you so pissed off?” Sasuke questioned. Naruto was being pathetic.

“I don’t want to have to explain to your mother why you haven't called her yet,” he sighed. “She believes we’re still friends, and I don’t have the heart to tell her that her beloved son is a stupid jerk,” he continued, sounding _bored_.

“How am _I_ a jerk?!” Sasuke barked at him.

“Sasuke, I’m tired and hungry, and _all_ I can think about is a hot shower,” Naruto breathed out. “Look, do whatever you want but I’m turning my phone off _right now_ ,” he said. He raised his phone, and forced it to shut down, making a stupid face as he did so. “If you don’t want your mother's hair to turn white with worry, _call her_ ,” he muttered, shoved Sasuke's bag into his hands, and entered the hotel, leaving Sasuke alone on the pavement.

Sasuke glared at the back of the stupid blond hair, wishing he had a ball he could kick into it. Unfortunately, there was nothing.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhh, these chapters are SO short
> 
> like, normally, I'd write at least 3k words more but this thing was supposed to have 3-4k words long chapters, and this one is already over 4k long, so... 
> 
> :'D
> 
> this feels like a cliff hanger, and it's not even a proper cliff hanger. Haha.
> 
> and hey, I lied, we'll delve into Naruto's family life in the next chapter, or maybe in the chapter after the next chapter because omg, these chapters are SO SHORT
> 
> anyways
> 
> thank you for all your support, for kudos, bookmarks, and, of course, COMMENTS <3 you're all too nice to me
> 
> (don't stop)


	5. Chapter 5

Sasuke entered a... thing that was probably aiming to be a lobby but was just a glorified corridor, half-expecting to find Naruto waiting for him because it was the  _first_  time Sasuke got into the hotel, he didn’t know his room number, he had no key, and, generally speaking, he was as much of a hotel guest as anyone walking down the street outside of hotel. However, Naruto was nowhere to be found, he pretty much evaporated into thin air. Sasuke frowned, and looked around. Then he spotted Kakashi. 

Or, to be more precise, Kakashi spotted  _him._ Because Kakashi appeared out of nowhere. 

"There you are," the man yawned, flipping through some overused porn magazine, acting as if he'd been standing there since the beginnings of time. Judging from what Sasuke saw, this porn magazine was all about big, big boobs. He… he had nothing against boobs but he also wasn’t able to understand what was  _so_  interesting about them. It was just some skin and fat. 

“Here I am,” Sasuke agreed. Kakashi gave him a slow nod. Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if their club advisor wasn't just high as fuck. He was usually distracted by  _something_ , he was way too relaxed for Sasuke's liking, and for most of the time, Kakashi looked as if he wasn't even certain where he was. 

“Yeah,” Kakashi replied, sounding as if he was letting Sasuke in on some big secret, as if he was about to reveal that he’s seen right through Illuminati's and reptilians' plans of world domination. “Naruto’s already went to the room,” he informed Sasuke. Sasuke didn't really care. He  _knew_  Naruto's already went to the room, the moron said something about a hot shower, and there weren't too many places in a cheap hotel, where one could take  _any_  kind of shower. “304,” Kakashi whispered. 

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He was eighty percent sure it was a room number, but the other twenty percent of his brain were betting that it was some kind of code. Like for launching nukes.  _All_ of the nukes. 

“ _He's_   _there_ ,” Kakashi stated. 

“Who's there?” Sasuke asked. This conversation was getting more and more mysterious with every passing minute. 

“Naruto,” Kakashi clarified, utterly destroying the moment. 

“I'm not looking for him,” Sasuke informed the teacher, who shot him a disoriented stare. 

“ _He_   _has_   _the_   _key_ ,” Kakashi said and cleared his throat, looking around, as if he was scared someone was watching them. 

“The key to what?” Sasuke inquired. 

“ _The room_ ,” Kakashi answered. This time, he sounded as if he was talking to a complete idiot. “Go there.” 

“Why?” Sasuke questioned. Did Kakashi think that there was some kind of portal to an alternative dimension or something? What was in the room? What key did Naruto hold? Did he possess some mystical knowledge unavailable to other mortals? 

“You're high,” Kakashi deadpanned. 

“I'm not,” Sasuke protested. He wasn’t. Kakashi was probably projecting his own high on him. 

“I'll just lead you there,” the man sighed, closing the porn magazine, and hiding it in his bag. Then he placed his hand on Sasuke’s shoulder, and gave him a gentle push. “Come on, you'll go to sleep, and in the morning everything will be fine,” he promised. 

“Are you going to heal me?” Sasuke asked. 

“Sure,” Kakashi agreed. “Let's go,” he ordered, pretty much hauling Sasuke towards the elevator. The receptionist sent them a weird look but he calmed down immediately after Kakashi smiled and shrugged his shoulders. Sasuke wondered what it all meant. Was the receptionist  _in_  as well? 

One thing was certain—it was all weird and unnatural. 

* * *

Naruto frowned when he heard loud, aggressive knocking. This day was a freaking disaster. And it all started on morning, when Naruto realized that this time he  _wouldn't_  sit next to Sasuke. It was possible that he would never again sit next to Sasuke. Because Sasuke preferred being wherever else and with whomever else. Today, it happened to be next to Suigetsu. 

Naruto just went to his regular place at the back of the couch, and lied there to catch up on sleep but being there just reminded him that Sasuke  _wasn’t_  there. His jumper had nothing on the stupid jerk's lap, and it simply wasn't the same, and so it sucked. 

Then there was the game, and that in itself was a disaster enough. He got himself pulled off the field, and this achieved absolutely nothing, and then, maybe two minutes later, Sasuke got himself pulled off the field. Sasuke, of course, had to be more dramatic. Sasuke passed out, the doctor's said it was from pain or shock, or whatever. So the doctor gave Sasuke some drugs to make it hurt  _less_. Judging from Sasuke's reactions, it still hurt. 

And now, when Naruto was trying to persuade himself that he'd be able to  _stop thinking about Sasuke because this was totally pathetic_ , he learned that he was fucking  _rooming_  with the jerk. The rest of the team was still away, celebrating in some restaurant or wherever, there was no way for Naruto to switch rooms with anyone, and this  _sucked_. 

And he wasn't even allowed to take a stupid shower in peace. Naruto groaned in annoyance as the doors to the room rattled again. 

“One moment,” he yelled. It was probably Sasuke. Sasuke, demanding to know  _why Naruto was so obsessed with him_. So obsessed that he'd room with him even though he knew how much Sasuke despised him. Naruto breathed in, puffed out his chest, wiped most of the water with a towel, put on a t-shirt and some shorts, all this while ignoring the knocking because he  _wasn’t_  going to welcome Sasuke half-naked. When he finally left the bathroom to unlock the doors, he was annoyed beyond belief. 

“Finally,” Kakashi sighed, his hand resting on Sasuke's shoulder. “I think he's high, take care of him,” he ordered, turned on his heel, and pretty much  _disappeared_. How. How the hell Kakashi was able to walk away  _this_ fast without running, without even looking as if he was in a hurry. 

“ _Are you kidding me_?!” Naruto yelled after Kakashi. He wanted to know  _why_  the man thought that Sasuke was high because there was no way in hell Sasuke would take any drugs. If anybody found even traces of illegal substances in his blood, Sasuke wouldn't be able to play football. 

“I'm not high,” Sasuke protested, a dumbfounded expression on his paler than usual face. “But I think  _he_  is,” he snorted. Naruto glared at him. 

“You  _are_  high, if you weren't, you wouldn't be acting like a normal human being,” he disagreed with his former best friend. He studied Sasuke's face. Sasuke’s eyes were naturally black. Finding the border between his iris and pupil was difficult. Naruto sighed and leaned closer. Sasuke's breath hitched, and Naruto realized how close they were. “Sorry,” he blurted out, “I was just trying to,” he stuttered, “your  _eyes_ ,” he mumbled under his breath and cleared his throat. 

“What about them?” Sasuke asked. He didn’t step back. Why didn't he step back? Normally, if someone got too close, the other person would  _move_. This was the normal thing to do. Naruto breached Sasuke's personal space, and— 

“I'm trying to see if your pupils are dilated,” he explained, and stepped back himself. He still had no idea if Sasuke's pupils were or weren't dilated. But he wasn't willing to check again. “Go to sleep,” he coughed, and turned away to bury himself under the covers of his single bed. 

“I'm  _not_  high,” Sasuke repeated. 

“Maybe it's the drugs the doctor gave you,” Naruto argued. “Go to sleep,” he ordered. 

“You weren't there, he sounded out of this world,” Sasuke complained, carefully lying on the other bed. “He was talking about keys and numbers, and—” 

“ _We're in a hotel_ ,” Naruto interrupted him. He couldn't believe this. It was surreal and absurd. “Of  _course_  he was talking about keys and numbers,” he insisted. 

“Maybe it was more about the tone of his voice,” Sasuke relented and yawned. Halfway through the yawn, he hissed in pain. Naruto felt like launching a pillow at the careless idiot. If they  _weren't_  fighting, he'd throw the pillow. He'd miss on purpose but still, he'd make Sasuke's blood run faster. 

What. 

No. 

No, no, no. 

“I'm going to dry my hair, and get something to eat,” Naruto informed him, unbundling himself from the covers. He needed to  _leave_. “I'll buy something for you too,” he offered with a heavy sigh. “Call your parents and go to sleep. I'll switch rooms with someone,” he concluded. 

“What?” Sasuke sighed. “You seriously can't handle staying in the same room as me?” he questioned in a tired voice. 

Naruto stared at the other boy. Sasuke could say whatever he wanted, he  _wasn't_  thinking straight. “I thought  _you_  didn’t want to stay with me,” he confessed. 

“Why?” Sasuke asked, sounding tired and bored. 

“Is  _this_  the moment when you tell me you've decided to take that rod out of your ass and act like a—” 

“What rod?” Sasuke hissed at him. “Forget it,” he whispered, resignation audible in his voice. 

“ _Really_? That rod you have shoved up your ass—” 

“I don't have anything shoved up my ass,” Sasuke growled. “Shut up, dry your hair, and go. I don't feel like talking to you anymore, it's fucking pointless.” 

“What, rods make you think of cocks? You might be gayer than you think,” Naruto barked at him. 

“What is it even supposed to mean?” Sasuke groaned, rubbing his face with straightened fingers. “I'm pretty certain that the one, who's gayer than he thinks, is you,” he added. 

“ _Sure_ ,” Naruto yapped back. 

Sasuke didn’t reply. He did, however, raise himself on his elbows, carefully sat up, tried to bend to get his sport bag, cursed— 

“Wait,” Naruto sighed, got up, handed Sasuke the bag, and withstood his cold glare. “You're welcome,” the blonde muttered. Sasuke rolled his eyes, and fished out his phone. He launched it, and frowned upon seeing his welcome screen. 

“Are you fucking serious,” he muttered under his breath, probably flipping through all the messages and missed calls. 

“It  _is_  the Valentine's Day,” Naruto said before he could remember that he  _wasn't_  talking to Sasuke. Not anymore. Unless it was going to be about football. Otherwise, they totally weren’t talking. 

“Happy Valentine's Day,” Sasuke replied. It sounded automatic. It probably  _was_. Naruto had complained about lack of interest, and last year Sasuke had wished him happy valentines. Apparently, it was now their trad— 

It  _wasn’t_. They  _weren't talking_. 

Naruto took a deep breath. He  _wanted_  for them to talk. Maybe, if he was to ignore every time Sasuke said something stupid— 

Yeah, not happening. 

He watched Sasuke clicking through his phone, writing something, turning off the sound, and placing it on a nightstand. 

“You were supposed to call your parents,” Naruto reminded him. 

“I've sent them a text, they'll be fine till tomorrow, I'm tired, and it's  _not_  your business, so get off my case,” Sasuke sighed in reply. 

“You’ve got at least ten other text messages, common courtesy—” 

“I seriously don't care,” Sasuke interrupted Naruto. “They can wait till tomorrow too,” he said, slowly standing up and heading towards the bathroom. He entered it, left, handed Naruto a hairdryer, said something along the lines of  _you can take the keys, don't bother yourself with buying me food, I'm going to sleep_ , and left Naruto alone. 

The blonde leaned forward, frantically trying to understand  _why_  he even liked the jerk. After three more minutes, he still didn't know the answer, so he gave up. He was hoping he'd be able to think of something after he’d finally eat. 

* * *

A shrill noise woke Sasuke up, startling him, making him violently jerk up in his bed, and, in the effect, making him feel as if he was trampled by a stampede of horses. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” he howled. “What the  _fuck_ , Naruto?!” he demanded to know. Because that noise was Naruto. Weird. Didn't Naruto want to change rooms? “Seriously, you dumbass, you can't just,” Sasuke paused. It dawned on him. The moron went out to get something to eat, didn't he? And when he went out, it was already past 9 p.m., and the idiot's said he was  _tired_. “You stupid moron,” he complained. 

“Sorry,” Naruto whimpered. 

“You're the worst,” Sasuke realized. Neither said anything for the next few minutes. “I won't be able to fall asleep with lights on,” Sasuke reminded the blond idiot, who merely groaned in reply. “I hate you  _so much_ ,” Sasuke sighed. “Why are you even here? I thought you were avoiding me.” 

“Nobody wanted to switch. I'm  _not_  avoiding you, I'm just trying to not make you feel uncomfortable, you jackass,” the blonde whispered, his sheet rustling with his every move. He was so noisy. And he wasn’t making any sense. 

“You're not making any sense,” Sasuke said out loud. “Why would you make me feel uncomfortable?” 

“ _Because_  you might think I’m into you?” Naruto supplied, sounding as if he was talking with a complete idiot. First Kakashi, and now him. How low did Sasuke fall? 

“I know you're not,” he reminded the moron. “You've made yourself clear.” 

“And you've made yourself clear about not wanting to continue this friendship,” Naruto mumbled out. 

Sasuke let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn't work anyways,” he admitted. 

“ _What_  doesn't work?” Naruto whined. “Seriously, what do you want from me?” 

“I want you to disappear,” Sasuke whispered. “But you're not going to,” he added. Naruto didn't say anything to it. “I give up,” Sasuke sighed. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Naruto asked, sounding offended. 

“You can come here if you want,” Sasuke offered, making place on the bed, patting the mattress, and turning his face towards the wall. His chest hurt, so he returned to lying on his back. He hated sleeping on his back. “I'm not going to do anything,” he assured the other boy. “And, whatever  _you_  do, I'm going back to sleep,” he concluded, and closed his eyes. For the next few minutes, Sasuke didn't hear anything. Aside from Naruto’s uneven breathing, that was. However, after these few minutes have passed, Sasuke heard some more rustling followed by soft steps, and then he could feel the weight resting on his bed. “Dumbass,” Sasuke murmured under his breath. Soon afterwards he heard something strangely resembling a  _thanks_. 

* * *

Naruto woke up few more times, and he managed to wake Sasuke up as well  _every single time_. Actually  _no_ , not every single time. After that time before the last one, Sasuke was no longer able to fall asleep. 

“You're ridiculous,” he informed the blond idiot, who grunted something in reply. He grunted it straight into the pillow.  _How_  the hell was Sasuke supposed to understand him? “ _What_?” 

“I've said I'm  _sorry_ ,” Naruto huffed. “It's not like I can do anything about it,” he complained. “You keep getting pissed off because of things I  _can't_  control—” 

“Oh,  _you_  are the one to talk,” Sasuke hissed in reply. “Besides, all you had to do was  _not_  eating before bed. It's  _this_  simple—” 

“Do you want me to starve to death or something? The last time I ate was before the game,” Naruto yapped. 

“It was the same for me, and yet  _somehow_ , I'm still alive,” Sasuke pointed out in a tired voice. He was  _so_ glad that today they were coming back home. All he wanted was some rest. But before that… 

He reached for his phone, and glared at the screen. He got over thirty messages from almost ten different girls. Back in the days, he wouldn't even know that the numbers sending him the messages were girls but Naruto's kept Sasuke’s phone directory more or less in order. All the messages were pretty much the same. At first there was something valentines related, and then they were saying that they were worried. Sasuke sighed, wrote  _thank you,_ _everything’s fine_  and hit send. 

“Did you just send it as a group text?” Naruto muttered his question. 

“No?” Sasuke tried. 

“You did,” Naruto breathed out. “You're so freaking hopeless with phones,” he wailed. “At least I’m hoping that you’re just hopeless with phones because if you think that replying to things like this in a  _group message_  is a good idea, you'll never find yourself a girlfriend,” Naruto said. Sasuke raised his eyebrows at the moron. 

“I'm not looking for a girlfriend,” he replied. 

“But one day perhaps you  _will_ , and then—” 

“I don't plan to ever look for a girlfriend,” Sasuke interrupted him. 

“Oh,” Naruto mumbled out. “So you're like  _this_ ,” he exclaimed and clapped his hands. Sasuke rubbed his face. His best friend was a total, incurable idiot. It was far worse than not knowing how exactly phones worked like. “I guess Kiba was right about you,” the blonde pondered. Sasuke side-eyed him. 

“You're  _so_  dumb,” he sighed. 

“But at least now I get it,” Naruto retorted, showing him tongue. Sasuke had no idea  _what_  was there to get, the whole issue wasn't too complicated, it wasn't complicated  _at all_. 

“Whatever,” Sasuke yawned. “You still suck,” he announced. He planned to go into more details on  _why Naruto sucked_  topic but someone barged into their room without knocking, startling both of them. Naruto's first instinct was to squeeze Sasuke’s side. Naruto was always  _so_  awfully jumpy after a night filled with stupid nightmares. Because Naruto's nightmares  _were_  stupid. Creepy, sure, but ridiculous. “Oh for fuck's sake,” Sasuke scowled. It hurt. It hurt way more than he'd ever care to admit. 

“Sorry,” the blonde whimpered. 

“Huh,” a familiar voice mumbled out. “Kiba, I've told you they were just pretending to be fighting,” Sai yelled into the corridor. 

“Why didn't you lock the doors?!” Sasuke complained, feeling his side, hoping it would  _somehow_  relieve the pain. 

“Why would we pretend that we’re fighting?!” Naruto asked Sai, who ignored him completely, way more interested in Kiba entering the room. 

“Oh c'mon, they’re not smart enough to,” Kiba paused, sending them a long, cold stare. “I can't believe it,” he muttered. “Why didn't you just tell us—” 

“Tell you  _what_?” Sasuke demanded to know. The moment his mouth shut, he regretted asking the question. “Actually, don't bother yourself with replying,” he sighed. 

“You're lucky Sai told us he thought you were just  _pretending_ , you know,” Kiba complained, “if he didn't, we might've switched rooms with you,” he added, sounding tired. Naruto threw his arms in the air, and plopped on the bed, nudging Sasuke's chest in the process. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Sasuke growled. “I swear, if you touch me  _one more time_ , I’ll strangle you,” he threatened. 

“It's good to see you two acting so lively again,” Sai chimed in. “Anyways, Asuma sent us to tell you that the bus is leaving at 10 a.m., so you have two hours to, well, do your thing,” he said in his fake, cheery voice. 

“I hate you all,” Naruto breathed out and let out a massive yawn. Sasuke yawned in reply. Why did it have to be so contagious? Kiba soon followed suit. Only Sai remained unaffected. Like always. 

Sasuke was pretty certain that one time he'd read that being immune to contagious yawning could be a sign that someone was a psychopath. Well, it wouldn't be too surprising if Sai turned out to be one. He  _was_  weird. 

“And we'll be the only team, whose captain's benched,” Sai smiled. 

“We’ll win anyways,” Kiba announced, hitting his chest with his fist. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders. It didn't really matter if they won or not. “So you two can just relax,” he assured them. Kiba was obnoxious but reliable. Sasuke didn’t really believe they'd win just because Kiba's said they would—if it was Naruto saying it, Sasuke would just accept it as truth—but he had to admit that it  _was_  possible. Perhaps, it would be good to see how the team played without Naruto and him. 

“Thanks,” he whispered. “Get out of bed, Naruto,” he ordered. He was lying between the wall and Naruto, and feeling how he did, standing up just like this was pretty much impossible. No, he had to slide off the bed. Sasuke rubbed his face, realizing how ridiculous he was going to look. “Kiba, Sai, leave, we’ll see you in thirty minutes,” he muttered. The boys did listen to him. People generally listened to him. Aside from Naruto, of course. “Naruto,  _move_ ,” Sasuke insisted. “I want to stand up.” 

“Are we friends again? Are we good?” Naruto inquired, his voice calm and quiet. He sat up on the mattress, his blue eyes boring into Sasuke's face. Sasuke sighed. 

“I have no idea,” he admitted. Saying they were friends again would imply that nothing's changed but they  _weren't_  able to go back to what they were. Even seeing how often they had to mention that  _whole gay thing_ , it was clear that neither was truly comfortable around the other.  _This_ , whatever  _this_  was, was just an effect of how close they used to be but now they were in a limbo, unable to move forward. They  _were_  going to grow apart. All they had was just a few more months of high school, and then they would go their separate ways. It was for the better. Probably. Perhaps.  

Naruto frowned before looking away. 

“I see,” he mumbled out, and left the bed. Sasuke moved to follow him, shaking his head when the blonde offered him help. “But we’re better than yesterday, right?” 

Sasuke hated Naruto for how  _hopeful_  he sounded. Because even the moron had to realize that they were pretty much  _done_  with each other. 

“I guess,” Sasuke whispered. “Go take a shower, I have to call my parents.” 

“Sure,” Naruto obeyed, sending him half a smile. Sasuke pretended he was engulfed in whatever was happening on his phone screen. It hurt. Avoiding Naruto hurt, trying to act  _normal_  around Naruto hurt, being next to Naruto hurt. 

But it was just a few more months, and then he could disappear forever. And  _then_  he would be alright again. Now he simply needed to focus on football and exams. Everything was going to be fine if he could do it. It didn't sound too difficult, and Sasuke had no idea why his gut was telling him it was going to be way more difficult than it sounded. 

He hoped his gut feeling was wrong. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh, and if you're wondering how accurate i am when it comes to football and stuff--i did some reading on it, so the position names, rules of the game itself, etc. /should/ be correct but! i have absolutely no idea how tournaments are organized, so when it comes to this whole ohoho let's have a group stage first, and then it'll be finals or whatever, it's just my wild imagination. normally, i'd write it correctly but this is something i established in chapter 1, when this ff was still supposed to be a one shot and back then i was too lazy to be bothered with checking what football is all about :'D
> 
> also, i still can't get used to the length of this fic's chapters so i'm kind of unhappy with their rhythm, meaning that to me it means like it slows down too much by the end, the most intense point is somewhere in the second half but it's too soon for ending, and it's still a mess
> 
> i hope i'll get better at it with time :Y


	6. Chapter 6

Doing  _anything_  was a huge pain in the ass. Sasuke’s never appreciated how painless moving has been up till now. Because now everything hurt. Breathing, walking, bending, turning, lying, coughing, laughing…  _everything_. Sasuke even started appreciating that Naruto was acting as if he was a cracked egg because other guys  _weren't_  too considerate. Suigetsu was trying to throw himself on Sasuke, and his intentions were probably good but if it wasn’t for Naruto jumping in Suigetsu's way, Sasuke would've probably still be lying on the floor, unable to move. And that happened over thirty minutes ago. So Sasuke begrudgingly accepted the fact that letting Naruto walk in front of him was for the best. Because Naruto was going to intercept any projectiles and stop people from patting Sasuke's shoulder and back. Apparently, when people were worried, they had this inexplicable urge to  _touch_  the other person. Sasuke didn't like being touched even under normal circumstances, and having a cracked rib just amplified it tenfold. 

It sucked. It seriously sucked. 

“How are you?” Haku asked him, looking all worried. Sasuke still hated Haku. He would've preferred it if Haku was an inconsiderate asshole because then hating him would've been so much more understandable but no, Haku was  _nice_. Genuinely nice. He avoided conflicts like fire, and everyone liked him. Stupid prodigy. 

“I'm fine,” Sasuke muttered in reply. He wasn’t fine. He glared at the chair. He knew he had to sit down and eat some breakfast because the last time he'd eaten was yesterday afternoon but the idea of sitting down and swallowing food was terrifying him. 

“Just don't touch him, and he’ll be fine,” Naruto told Haku, and smiled at the younger boy. And it was a sincere smile, and not this forced shit he was giving Sasuke. The blonde pulled a chair away from the table, and gestured for Sasuke to take a seat. Sasuke glared daggers at him, and chose a different chair. He was, of course, cursing his pride seconds later but he didn't let it show on his face. 

“I know I shouldn't be saying this,” Kiba started, his mouth full of unchewed food, “but it's a good thing we didn’t let Naruto take you off the field,” he stated. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him. He never would've guessed that Kiba would ever say  _we_  meaning Sasuke and him. 

“Don’t encourage him,” the blonde sighed, pouring himself a perfectly good coffee, and then ruining it with two spoons of sugar. 

“Oh c'mon, he's fine, you've said so yourself,” Kiba protested. “And I didn't want to tell you this because I  _actually believed_  that you two assholes were fighting,” he muttered, “but Hinata sent me a really sweet text yesterday,” he ended in a content sigh. “So fuck you, Shikamaru,” he barked. Sasuke barely managed to refrain himself from rolling his eyes. He caught Naruto frowning but the blonde too seemed to stop himself from— 

Sasuke had no idea  _what_  Naruto was stopping himself from. Probably from informing everyone that he was neither involved nor interested in being involved with Sasuke. Or maybe he's realized he actually liked Hinata, and was simply angry at himself for not acting upon it sooner. Sasuke didn’t want to know. 

He carefully maneuvered his body to move as little, as it was only possible, simultaneously trying to get everything done. Haku, who was sitting on his right, and Naruto, who was sitting on his left (moron, this way they were going to bump elbows) were really determined to do everything for him, and that was annoying as hell because Sasuke had to needlessly waste energy on swatting their grubby hands away. 

“She sent one to everyone on the team,” Shikamaru informed Kiba in a bored voice. Naruto perked up at this. Weird. Sasuke wondered if Hinata sent him one too. Probably yes, he  _was_  on the team, so it would've been weird if she hasn't but Hinata was kind enough to not be interested in him for no reason whatsoever. She's never made  _any_  comments, no nothing, to her Sasuke pretty much didn't exist. And this was wonderful. Perhaps she noticed he didn't want her attention. Maybe she was ignoring him on purpose to make Naruto feel better about himself. One way or another, Sasuke was grateful. 

Nevertheless, seeing how disinterested in Hinata Naruto's been, was reassuring. Sasuke knew there was nothing awaiting him when it came to the blonde but he wasn’t ready to see him parading around with some random girl. Because really, right now any girl getting together with Naruto would be random. Even if Sakura, Naruto's crush since pretty much forever, suddenly decided to go out with him… it would've been weird if Naruto was  _really_ ,  _actually_  interested. 

Because Sasuke  _knew_  how Naruto was spending his time. When he wasn’t in school, playing soccer or hanging out with Sasuke, he was sleeping. That was it. There was no time for him to develop an actual crush on any girl, not to mention anything more serious. 

Even if Naruto was almost  _over_  interested in girls. There was a time when Sasuke was wondering if acting like this wasn't just to mask how little the moron really cared about girls but it seemed that it wasn’t the case. Well, it  _couldn't_  be the case. And now Sasuke was certain of it. 

Shikamaru fished out his phone, clicked something and showed it to Kiba. Poor bastard. It seemed that Sasuke wasn't going to be the only brokenhearted one. 

“Well, I'm not giving up just yet,” Kiba muttered, mostly to himself. He received some sympathetic pats on his back from Shino and Naruto. 

“You have no reason to give up this soon,” Shino agreed. Sasuke barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Not that he really cared but there were some things that somehow bored into his mind despite trying to ignore Kiba’s usual word puke. And that was the fact that Kiba and Hinata were pretty good friends. Childhood friends. 

Destroying a friendship for something that could never happen was… wasteful. 

“It's not worth it,” he muttered against his better judgement. “You're good friends,” he pointed out. 

“Uh, well, I guess Sasuke has a point,” Naruto chimed in, sounding uncertain. Why? Perhaps he was getting flashbacks of that moment when he understood that Sasuke had also  _other_  feelings for him. Sasuke knew he didn't like learning that one girl or another had  _feelings_  for him. It was uncomfortable. Maybe it was so for Naruto too. Perhaps it was worse if the person having feelings for you was someone you've considered your friend. 

“Oh for fuck's sake,” Kiba complained. “We  _all_ know there’s something you're not telling us, and at this point I have no idea  _which_  one of you is gay or if you're both gay, or if even neither of you is—although this would've been weird as fuck, like, seriously, what's the probability that two weirdos like you would actually meet to be all  _no homo_  with each other, but you  _don't_  have to ruin it for all of us just because you're unhappy,” he yapped. 

Naruto's face paled. 

“Why do you care so much?” Sasuke inquired with a heavy sigh.  

“Neither of you is playing in the next match, and it's because you've decided to be stupid,” Kiba barked in reply. 

“Just a few minutes ago you've been thanking me for being, as you called it,  _stupid_ ,” Sasuke hissed back. “We've won the game, and we're leaving the group stage because—” 

“Because Suigetsu and I managed to score a goal,” Kiba interrupted him. 

“I understand that in the next game it'll be you two versus eleven,” Naruto chimed in, giving him a cold look. “You clearly don’t need anyone to pass you the ball or protect our goal,” he muttered. 

“Naruto’s right, Kiba,” Shino agreed. 

“Kiba’s just enjoying being in the spotlight,” Haku chuckled. “Let him, it happens so rarely,” he added, and Sasuke could  _swear_  that Haku didn't mean it as an insult. And this probably hurt even more. It was much easier to ignore something that was  _meant_  to hurt because then there was a possibility that a person wasn't really  _thinking_  that. But this… it was Haku saying what he thought. 

“You're all being ridiculous,” Shikamaru yawned. “Sometimes you're really troublesome.” 

“Yeah,” Chouji agreed. Chouji  _always_  agreed with Shikamaru. Perhaps Shikamaru needed someone to always agree with him to feel good about himself. 

“ _Sure_ , I’m the bad guy,” Kiba barked. “I just want you two,” he said, pointing at Naruto and Sasuke, “to sort out whatever you need to sort out. Because  _we_  are fine with you two dating, and we are fine with you two acting like two love birds without dating  _but_  if you're going to endanger the team by arguing or  _pretending_  you're arguing—” 

“We  _weren't_  pretending,” Naruto mumbled out, looking embarrassed. 

“ _Sure_ , and this is why you two were sleeping together,” Kiba muttered. “It was  _because_  you were arguing—” 

“I had a bad dream,” Naruto interrupted him. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the confession. Naruto's practically begged him to never let anyone know that he was this helpless with his nightmares. Well, it  _was_  understandable, it wasn't exactly awe inspiring to have a captain, who couldn't spend a night alone in a dark room if he happened to  _eat_  before going to sleep. It was silly and very much Naruto-like, and Sasuke didn’t mind it but it  _was_  somewhat stupid. 

“Are you shitting me?” Kiba asked, rubbing his stupid face as if it could help him understand the situation any better. “What are you,  _five_?” 

“Shut up,” Sasuke sighed. “Hearing you spew this bullshit makes me think you should feel  _lucky_  that neither of us is playing, this way you can show us just  _how much_  you don't need us,” he said. “Go ahead, Kiba, go wild and score a goal  _on your own_ ,” he growled. “Kicking a ball that's been passed to you at a perfect time and a perfect angle is  _easy_. And you've been messing these up,” he added. 

“Do you consider yourself better than—” 

“Yes,” Sasuke interrupted Kiba. “I train harder than you, I've made more passes, I scored more points, I've spent more time with the ball, and, if you haven't noticed,” Sasuke hissed, “Sharks were targeting  _me_ , and not  _you_ , even  _after_  you've scored your goal,” he concluded. “So get off your high horse and focus on getting better yourself before you start pointing fingers at others.” 

“Ah, yes, exactly what we need,” Shikamaru sighed. “Sure, fight yourself over stupid bullshit, this works too,” he murmured in his bored voice. “ _This_  is how you're going to win the championships, not with teamwork or anything stupid like this,” he yawned, and stretched his arms. 

“Stop fighting,” Chouji pleaded. “You're just nervous, so give it all a rest,” he argued. “We've won, we should be  _happy_ , and you're just screaming at each other for no reason whatsoever,” he complained. 

“You’re all so boring,” Sai sighed. “ _This_  is so boring. At least argue over something interesting.” 

“Nobody's going to argue,” Naruto protested. “Sasuke and I made peace,” he stated, sending a pleading stare towards Sasuke, who nodded in agreement because they kind of  _did_  make peace, “Kiba, we all wish you best of luck with Hinata—” 

“I don't care about Kiba’s luck with Hinata,” Sai whined. 

“Sai, shut up,” Naruto breathed out, sounding as if he was about to smack him. “We  _all_  wish you best of luck with Hinata,” he repeated, putting an extra emphasis on  _all_  even though he had to know that nobody apart from Kiba really cared about the whole deal, “and guys, sorry for getting myself penalized, I shouldn't have let myself act like this but I know that you're all strong, so I  _know_  that you'll be just fine on your own. You don't need Sasuke or me to win  _but_ ,” he said before Sasuke could interrupt him, “you have to admit that it's always easier when the whole team is working together.” 

“ _This_  is why we've made you the captain,” Konohamaru whispered, sounding as if he was about to cum. He was pretty much  _worshipping_  Naruto. Sasuke had no idea  _why_. Sure, Naruto  _was_  admirable but he was also a total, hopeless moron. Even admitting to himself that Naruto had some admirable qualities was difficult, saying it out loud was unthinkable, and saying it out loud with a lovestruck expression on one’s face… no, just  _no_. 

But  _perhaps_  Naruto  _was_  more fitted for the captain position than Sasuke. He was able to dissolve the tension through saying what everybody wanted to hear and simultaneously making them do what he wanted. He played others as if they were musical instruments. Somehow, the moron was a fucking genius when it came to manipulation. And, knowing him, he had no idea what he was doing because it was always in  _good faith_. Naruto was brainwashing his teammates and other people, believing he was just helping them.  _This_  was something to admire. 

Naruto was capable of great things. Terrible! Yes, but great. 

* * *

Sasuke looked as if he was about to die. Naruto hasn't talked to him much ever since the breakfast  _but_  everything had to be going  _somewhat_  well because Sasuke did follow after him to the back seat in the couch, and he was sitting there, and he  _wasn’t_  looking as if he was regretting it but he also looked as if he was about to die. Naruto was guessing it was from all the shaking. Sasuke was probably in pain whenever the bus would change speed, not to mention all these turns and stopping at the red lights and whatnots. 

“I can ask the driver to go slower,” Naruto offered in a hushed voice. 

“Hell no, I want to get this over with as soon, as possible,” Sasuke protested in a pained whisper. 

“It’ll be at  _least_  three more hours,” Naruto pointed out, earning himself a groan. “Can I like help you out or something? I don't want you to be in pain, it's partially  _my_  fault,” he asked. Sasuke merely shook his head. Naruto heaved a heavy sigh. “Look, if you  _want_ , we could try something but it might not work, and you might not like it—” 

“What am I not going to like?” Sasuke inquired. 

“I could, uh, try to keep you  _in place_ , I mean, you're hurting this much because the bus is shaking, and  _maybe_  it would hurt  _less_  if I could somehow, I don't know, just… if you weren't moving this much,” Naruto blabbered. 

“And  _how_ exactly do you plan to keep me in place?” Sasuke hissed his question. He had to be really desperate to not shoot down Naruto's idea immediately. 

“Well,” the blonde started, trying to rid his voice of any uncertainty and failing, “we could get on the floor, and sit in the passage between the seats,” he shyly suggested, “I’d sit behind you, and try to stop you from moving,” he offered. 

“Sounds stupid,” Sasuke commented after a longer while. The bus violently stopped, so the brunette once again was moved against his will. “ _Fuck_ ,” he scowled under his breath. 

“It might not work but it's worth trying,” Naruto argued. “So, like, if you don't mind me sitting this close to you,” he mumbled out, “we could just  _do_ it.” 

“They've already found us sleeping in one bed,” Sasuke pointed out. “I'm pretty certain we  _don't_  have to give them more ammunition,” he stated with a heavy sigh. Naruto tilted his head. Sasuke  _wasn't_ saying that it wouldn't work or that he'd rather suffer than get any closer to Naruto, no, he was just… embarrassed. There was a chance he wouldn't think twice if they were alone. And this meant he had to be seriously hurting. Naruto took a deep breath, preparing himself for fighting Sasuke's stupid pride. Because he  _wasn't_  letting Sasuke suffer more than he had to. 

“They're talking shit anyways,” Naruto replied. “They'd be saying stupid things even if both of us had girlfriends, seriously, I'm pretty certain the only thing capable of convincing them that we are  _not_  dating would be if they caught  _both_  of us having sex with someone else, and even then they'd be having doubts,” he joked. Gods, he  _hoped_  he was joking. Now that he thought this through, it was possible that he was  _right_  about it. “We've passed the point of no return,” Naruto whispered, sending Sasuke a warm smile. “So, if the only thing you're worried about is them talking shit… they're already doing it, so it doesn't really matter  _what_  weare doing.” 

“The fact that you're right terrifies me,” Sasuke snorted in reply. 

“Yup, they're idiots,” Naruto agreed. “C'mon, we can always stop,” he said, stood up, and stepped into the passage to let Sasuke leave. The boy stared at him for a few seconds, probably searching for more arguments against making himself look ridiculous but in the meantime the bus took a sharp turn, and that had to seal the deal because Sasuke did move from his seat. 

Naruto let the boy pass him, and sat on the floor, resting his back against the back seat, and spreading his legs apart to make place for Sasuke. Well, alright, the position  _was_  somewhat compromising. Naruto forced himself to ignore it, and patted the floor as if he was inviting Sasuke to sit on some blanket for a picnic. Sasuke shook his head as if he himself couldn't believe what he was doing, and carefully lowered his body, using Naruto’s shoulder to support himself, and sat in front of him. After a longer while of hesitation, he rested his back against Naruto's chest, letting the blonde act as his armchair. 

Sasuke’s body was pleasantly warm, and had a familiar, comforting smell. Naruto stopped himself from being creepy and breathing Sasuke’s scent in, and instead grabbed the boy by his shoulders to stabilize him. 

“What exactly are you two doing?” Shikamaru inquired, peeking out from his seat. 

“The bus is shaking,” Sasuke muttered in reply. 

“Ah,” Shikamaru murmured, sounding as if it didn't explain anything.  “Whatever,” he decided, and returned to napping, apparently realizing that it  _wasn’t_  his business and that he didn't  _want_  it to be his business. Well, so far, so good. Kiba was asleep so there was a chance that they wouldn't have to explain themselves for at least long enough for Sasuke to see if this whole thing even worked. 

“Is it any better?” Naruto asked in a hushed voice. Stopping Sasuke from moving was surprisingly tiring. Practically all of Naruto's muscles had to be tensed for it to work but if it  _was_  working, then it was worth it. Naruto was willing to do much more than just get tired to ease his friend’s pain. 

“…are you comfortable?” Sasuke inquired just as quietly, ignoring Naruto’s question. 

“Yeah,” the boy lied. “What about you?” 

“It’s,” Sasuke started and paused, as if at loss for words, “ it helps,” he eventually admitted. 

“Good,” Naruto chirped in reply. He was awfully uncomfortable. The seat behind him was pushing against his back, he could feel Sasuke gradually getting limper and heavier in his arms, and then Naruto’s legs and arms, and  _all_  of his body had to act like a shock absorber. It was tiring and uncomfortable but it was to help Sasuke, and Naruto was willing to do pretty much anything to help Sasuke. 

He actually felt grateful that Sasuke even  _let_  him do it. 

Because Sasuke wasn't too big on accepting help. He was way too prideful to even  _admit_  he could use some help, so actually  _agreeing_  to it was… pretty much unheard of. And yet Sasuke allowed it. Despite the fact that they've just been fighting. Despite the fact that he knew Naruto was  _interested_  in him. He had to be seriously desperate. 

But it was also a sign of trust, and Naruto  _wasn’t_  going to betray it.  _Not_  enjoying being this close to Sasuke, despite how awfully uncomfortable it was, was depressingly difficult. Because Naruto  _liked_ being this close to Sasuke. It felt… right. 

“What university do you want to go to?” Naruto asked. Sasuke sighed and gave him a name, and Naruto whistled. “ _Okay_ , let me rephrase it, where do you  _plan_  to go? Because let's face it, you’re not  _this_  smart,” he whispered. Sasuke actually laughed in reply. Sometimes Naruto was certain that Sasuke actually  _liked_ being insulted like this. Maybe it was because there weren't too many people, who would insult him. Not like  _this_ , at least. There wasn't too much bite in Naruto's words, it was just  _facts_ , and it seemed that  _sometimes_  Sasuke liked being reminded of the fact that he too was merely a flawed human being, and not some kind of handsome genius everyone either loved or hated. 

“You're not getting there anyways,” Sasuke yawned. 

“You'd be surprised what I'm capable of when I put my heart into it,” Naruto disagreed in a soft voice. 

“I wouldn't,” the other boy confessed after a longer while. “But there's no reason for you to go out of your way for me. I relieve you of your promise,” he whispered. 

“That's for me to decide,” Naruto reminded Sasuke, who merely sighed in reply. Naruto mentally scolded himself. He was coming off as obsessed again. “But if you really don't want me to follow after you, then,” he paused because his throat tightened on him. He wasn’t able to imagine letting Sasuke  _go_. Not again. “I'm saying this because you've said you didn't want to stoop down to my level, so I'm just letting you know that you wouldn't have to,” he eventually mumbled out. “My mom would be  _thrilled_  if I told her I'm more ambitious,” he forced himself to chuckle. “So it's not exactly going out of my way. It's just,” he coughed to hide his embarrassment, “we have a good teamwork on the field. It would be a pity to just… let it go,” he lied. 

“We've simply played a lot of games together,” Sasuke sighed in reply. Naruto looked away. So for Sasuke even their football wasn't anything special. It was something he could recreate with someone else if given enough time. The blonde huffed under his nose, his arms unknowingly tightening around Sasuke’s shoulders. He  _knew_  it wasn’t just some stupid habit, it wasn't just that they were used to playing together. If this was  _all_  there was, they wouldn't be able to pull off what they had been pulling off when they still  _weren't_  used to playing together. Back then Naruto simply  _knew_  that Sasuke was going to give his all, his best no matter the circumstances, and he knew that Sasuke was expecting the same from him. And that both instinctively knew  _what_  was this  _best_. They didn't have to talk to communicate on the field, they didn't even have to look to know that the other was already waiting. It was pure, ungrounded trust. Trust, which eventually became grounded. They could rely on one another. They  _knew_  they could rely on each other like this. It wasn’t too common, no matter what Sasuke's said, it wasn’t just some stupid experience and habit, it was  _them_ , and it was special. 

But Sasuke didn't want it. Not anymore. 

“Fighting you could be interesting too,” he eventually admitted, not caring about how  _dead_ he sounded. He did like playing  _against_  Sasuke but he also liked the fact that these were just mock matches, that when it came to the real deal, they were together,  _unbreakable_. Except now they were very much breakable. “I wish I never sent you that stupid text,” he blurted out. 

Because this was how it all started. With some stupid text. Because Naruto thought Sasuke  _was_  interested. And who would've blamed him? Sasuke  _was_  acting differently towards him and other people. Naruto could do  _more_. For starters, he could touch the prickly hedgehog however and whenever he wanted. He could call him in the middle of the night risking merely an hour of bitching instead of certain death. He could crawl into Sasuke's bed, and tell him about his nightmares, and  _yes_ , sometimes Sasuke would make fun of him for it but it was somehow comforting. Knowing that Sasuke was  _there_ , this close, unafraid, was comforting. 

But Sasuke  _wasn't_  interested. It wasn’t his fault, of course. He wasn’t just not interested in  _Naruto_ , it was nothing  _personal_ , Sasuke was just  _generally_  disinterested. Naruto understood and respected it. Letting go was difficult, sure, but it would've been manageable. 

Except now Sasuke wanted nothing to do with him. He wanted nothing to do with Naruto while acting just like before, before the text message, before everything crumbled to pieces. 

“It cleared some issues up,” Sasuke pointed out, his voice tense and tired. Ah, yes, Sasuke preferred ugly truth to a beautiful lie. 

“Yeah, we’re going through a break up even though we've never dated,” the blonde forced himself to joke. Sasuke breathed out through his nose. “Sasuke,” Naruto murmured into the boy’s ear, perking up a little, “you don't have to tell me where you’re going but if we  _happened_ to go to the same university, could you like just accept that it's destiny?” 

“I don't believe in destiny,” Sasuke sighed in reply. His heart was beating really fast. He had to be seriously stressed.  _And_  he was in pain, and Naruto was being pushy, and that was plain awful of him. 

“Sorry, I'll shut up,” he mumbled out under his breath. Sasuke had said that he wanted Naruto to  _disappear_.  

It turned out that there were some things Naruto  _wasn't_  able to do for him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omfg can we just return from this stupid game already :U  
> yes!  
> thank you.  
> gods.
> 
> 4k words for a fucking breakfast and a journey home
> 
> what is wrong with me


	7. Chapter 7

“Welcome home, little brother,” Itachi murmured his greeting without even raising his eyes from the laptop screen. Sasuke glared at him, fully aware of the fact that Itachi had no idea he was being glared at.

“You're maybe one inch taller than me,” Sasuke barked in reply, wondering how to take off his shoes without feeling as if he was on some medieval torture device. Itachi was coming home once every few  _months_. Finding him here  _today_  was like a final nail to Sasuke's coffin.

“Youngsters nowadays are so rude,” Itachi complained. “Shall I call you my baby brother? Since you dislike  _little_  so much—”

“Just use my name,” Sasuke suggested, knowing how pointless it was. Because this wasn't the first time they've had this discussion, and it definitely wasn’t the last time either.

“Sasuke, sweetheart,” his mom exclaimed as she entered the living room, visibly getting ready to choke Sasuke in her embrace.

“Mom, don't,” he pleaded. She stopped herself and gave him an understanding nod.

“Itachi, I forgot to tell you,” she stated, sounding as if she committed a great offence, “Sasuke has a cracked rib, so be gentle with him,” she said and gave Sasuke a warm smile.

“I'm always gentle with him,” Itachi protested. He was lying. Sure, he had been a loving brother when Sasuke was like five years old or so but then he decided to bully the living shit out of him. Sasuke had no idea  _why_. He wasn’t certain if  _Itachi_  knew why.

“Do you need some help?” his mom inquired.

“No,” he lied. “Thank you.”

He wished Naruto was here. Because Naruto would've ignored him saying no and tried to help anyways. And Sasuke  _needed_  help. Sasuke's mom left, and he dropped his bag on the floor, deciding that it was as good of a start as any.

“What happened?” Itachi inquired, sounding absolutely disinterested.

“Someone fouled me,” Sasuke answered.

“On purpose?” his brother demanded to know. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

“I guess,” he replied, deciding that he'd simply have to sit down to take off his shoes because there was no way in hell he was doing it standing up. To his horror, he saw Itachi put away his laptop and give him a measuring look. “What?” Sasuke sighed.

“Who was it?”

“Some kid,” Sasuke replied and kicked off his shoes, proud that he managed to do something as complicated as taking off his shoes without making himself feel like he needed to bathe in morphine.  “But we've won anyways, so it doesn't matter,” he added.

“You won't win with  _me_  if you won't value your health,” Itachi murmured under his breath. He  _knew_  how to get under Sasuke's skin. He knew exactly what to say, what tone of voice use, what expression to put on his face. He knew it all and he was mercilessly using it to his advantage. “Besides, you're my  _brother_. Maybe I should pay a visit to this—”

“There’s no need,” Sasuke protested. Itachi had this protective streak in him. It manifested in weirdest moments, and was mostly annoying. He'd probably have no problems with watching Sasuke drown but if someone was drowning Sasuke, he'd beat up this person to a pulp. Sasuke had given up on trying to understand how his brother’s mind worked like ages ago, he just knew that it couldn't be a healthy one.

“If you say so,” Itachi relented with a heavy sigh and once again focused his attention on his laptop. “I thought we'd go jogging together in the evening,” he said, “but I guess you’re in no shape for it,” he complained. “Was this your last game this season—”

“It wasn't,” Sasuke barked at him. He  _hoped_  it wasn’t. But he wouldn't be allowed to practice for at least three more weeks. At all. The last time he got injured, it was just his ankle but then he could at least train other parts of his body, and now… now he had to  _wait_  and be useless.

“Your teammates must suck,” Itachi snorted. “You should've went to the school I went to, it's always had a good team,” he stated. “But I guess it's easier to shine among weaklings—”

“Just shut up, will you,” Sasuke interrupted him. He didn't go to the same school as Itachi because he was sick and tired of people looking at him and comparing him to his brother. These comparisons usually favored Itachi. He knew that if he went to Itachi's former school, the coach would start each and every one of his reprimands with  _your brother_. Even at his high school people have heard of Itachi. Of course they have. Itachi played in U18 and U16. On international level. Itachi was light years ahead of him.

“No matter how much you hate me, I will always be your older brother,” Itachi sighed. “I just want what's best for you but you keep making the wrong choices as if out of spite,” he complained. “And now you'll follow your shitty boyfriend into some shitty college with a shitty team—”

“He's  _not_  my boyfriend,” Sasuke snapped at his brother.

“ _And he's not shitty_ ,” Itachi laughed in reply, probably trying to do Sasuke's impression. Gods, if only he knew how much Naruto and he had in common. They both sucked at doing impressions.

“ _And_ ,” Sasuke hissed at him, “I'm not following him anywhere,” he concluded.

“Ah,  _bravo_ , at least you've got this one thing right,” Itachi applauded him in his most unimpressed voice. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at him and, eventually giving up on continuing a pointless discussion, forced himself to get up from the chair and leave the living room to hide himself in his bedroom. He hoped he'd be able to sleep through the entirety of Itachi’s visit. Even though he knew it had to be impossible.

* * *

“We've won,” Naruto announced the second he entered his house. He was answered with a high pitched squeal of joy followed by hurried footsteps, and then—by his mom's arms.

“Congratulations,” she exclaimed, hugging her son and giving him a kiss on the forehead. “Minato, your son’s going to the championships,” she yelled into the corridor.

“Seriously?!” Naruto’s dad screamed from the kitchen. He too appeared in the corridor, a dusty from flour apron tied around his waist. “That's  _amazing_ ,” he said.

“Why do you sound so surprised?!” Naruto’s mom complained, sending her husband a menacing glare. “ _Of course_  he's going to the championships, what else were you expecting,” she whined.

“Well,” he mumbled out, “ _this_  but it's still great,” he said. “I'm so proud of you,” he confessed. Naruto gave him a wide grin.

“I need to go to a cram school,” he informed his parents immediately afterwards, hoping they wouldn't ask too many questions of they were still busy being proud of him.

“What, are you failing a class?” his mom inquired, looking decidedly less happy than just a second ago. “I bet your teacher told you that you wouldn't be allowed to stay on the team if you failed—”

“I'm not failing anything,” he replied, rolling his eyes, and unwrapping himself from his mom's arms. “Have some faith in me,” he whined even though he was well aware of the fact that hadn’t he known better, he would've said that his only incentive for going to a cram school was trying to avoid a failing grade. “I just want to get to a good university,” he said. “I'm being  _ambitious_ , you see,” he smiled.

“Ah, you've left a boy and returned a man,” Minato joked. “I bet we should thank Sasuke for you being  _ambitious_ ,” he chuckled.

“Shush,” Kushina silenced her husband, probably afraid that Naruto would change his mind if they embarrassed him too much. “It’s a very good idea,” she murmured, patting his head as if he was a dog, and a real  _good boy_  at that. “Do you have some specific one in mind or is any alright?”

“I,” Naruto paused, realizing he had no idea, “I'll tell you later,” he promised. “By Monday.”

“I can just call Sasuke's mom and ask her where he's going,” his mom offered, the corners of her lips turning upwards.

“No,” Naruto protested. “I don’t think Sasuke's going to one anyways. It's not like he needs it,” he explained, forcing himself to keep on smiling. The real answer was  _I don't think Sasuke wants me to go to the same_ _one as he is_ , but Sasuke probably wasn't going to any anyways, so it wasn't exactly a lie.

“You're going  _alone_?” Kushina questioned. “Well, in this case, if you miss even  _one_  class, you'll be paying for the school yourself,” she decided. Naruto frowned at it. She was practically accusing him of being unable to put his mind and heart into something if Sasuke wasn't involved in it. Well. Perhaps she wasn't entirely wrong because Sasuke was very much involved, he'd just be… absent.

“Deal,” he agreed. “Thank you,” he added, giving his parents one more hug. “I won't disappoint you,” he promised.

* * *

Sasuke was lying on his bed and listening to music on his headphones, trying to refrain himself from texting the blond dumbass. Because usually, if Itachi was returning home, Sasuke would just sent Naruto some enigmatic text, just to inform him that Sasuke’s brother was  _visiting_ , and that would usually solve the problem. Because Naruto would either invite Sasuke out or himself in, and it's never  _officially_  been about helping Sasuke avoid Itachi, no, it was always something  _else_.

Usually, it was something stupid, like  _you need to check out this game_  or  _let's go running_ , or even  _they're playing this new amazing movie_ , and Sasuke usually didn’t like these games and movies but Naruto was giving him a way  _out_ , and if he was using the situation to his advantage, then so be it. Because he was more than willing to accompany Naruto to a freaking Bee Movie if it meant not having to be anywhere near Itachi.

But they both knew what it was all about. Neither of them was saying this out loud, though. Because Sasuke didn't want to deal with it, and Naruto wasn’t forcing him to. Sasuke's never even told Naruto that he hated being compared to his brother, that he hated constantly comparing himself to his brother, he’s never told him any of this but it seemed that the boy knew it anyways. He'd even make jokes at Itachi’s expense, and it wasn’t exactly  _mature_  but it helped. Knowing that to Naruto Sasuke was  _Sasuke_ , and not Itachi's brother helped.

And Naruto  _had_ to know because he hasn't failed to somehow disrupt Itachi's visit even once, even when Sasuke knew he was busy. Hell, one time Naruto invited him to study together because he was supposed to write a massive make up test from biology on the next day, and they've never before studied together. And it’s never happened again, and when Sasuke did come, Naruto just apologized to him, offered him his laptop to  _watch something_  while he was studying. Sasuke didn't take him up on that offer, he actually helped the poor moron study, and that was probably for the best because Naruto’s notes were a huge mess, and he'd never pass if he was using them.

Sasuke knew that if he texted Naruto now, the blonde would come running to his rescue but…

It didn't feel right.

He was already way too dependent on Naruto, and it  _had_  to stop. Because it wasn't going to last forever, no, it was just for a few more months. Probably not even this. Sasuke couldn't train, couldn't play soccer. For the next few weeks he’d be only seeing Naruto in classes because the team was going to be busy with preparing for finals, and after that, after Sasuke would get better…

It would probably be already too late. Naruto and he were such a good duo because back in the days nobody else really  _wanted_  to play with him, nobody but Sasuke trusted him enough to pass him the ball when the team was in a pinch. And Naruto  _liked_  being trusted, he liked it when others depended on him, when others counted on him. This was when he shone the brightest. He simply remained loyal to Sasuke because Sasuke was the first one. Now he was going to notice that there were also others. And everyone already had great faith in him, hell, he was the team captain, they had more faith in him than in anyone else.

So really, there was no point in texting Naruto. It would just delay the inevitable and prolong Sasuke’s suffering.

Sasuke jerked up when the music stopped and he heard a text message sound. He opened his eyes and unlocked his phone.

_How did_ _ur_ _parents react to your rib?_

Sasuke bitterly smiled at the phone screen. Naruto was unknowingly taunting him because really, mentioning Itachi in a reply would've been  _too_  easy. His phone beeped again.

_Mine totally flipped out_ _ >.>_ _My dad is baking_ _ur_ _mom some kind of "I'm sorry, don't hate us just because our son is an idiot" cake_

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief, finally allowing himself to smile. He liked Naruto's family. They were nice people, even if a little... weird. Weird was a right word. They were a little bit too lively, and when Sasuke met them for the first time, he had believed that they were just faking all of their reactions but it turned out that no, they were just easily excitable. It was clear that Naruto took after them. Sasuke sighed, and wrote a reply.

_They're already used to sport-related injuries so tell_ _your parents_ _to chill out_

Of course they were. His entire family was in one way or another tied to sport. It was pretty much expected of them to find a career in sport. Sasuke wasn't even certain if he would've gotten hooked on soccer if it wasn't for  _this_  but now it was way too late for having second thoughts. But he had to admit that the first time when he really started to enjoy it was because playing with Naruto was  _fun_.

He started typing  _besides, they’re busy with_ _something else_  but he decided to delete it. Because having Naruto here right now  _wouldn't_  help. Naruto would’ve thrown everything he was doing and came running to the rescue for pretty much  _anyone_. He just… was like this. For him, it probably meant as much as shaking someone’s hand. Sasuke wasn't a special case.

Sasuke hated himself for feeling like he  _needed_  to be a special case.

_Y_ _ou_ _sure? The cake's already in the oven, don't let it go to waste_ _oAo_

Sasuke let go off the phone, and let it land on the bed beside him. He didn’t care about the cake, and Naruto  _knew_  it. Sasuke wasn’t a fan of sweets, no-one in his family was. And sure, Naruto's dad was a great baker, which was ridiculous because the man wasn't able to cook a half-decent meal even if his life depended on it, and it was exactly the same for Naruto's mom, and so Naruto's diet consisted mostly of takeout, and there were days when Sasuke  _pressured_  the moron into coming to his house for a supper because every once in a while even a dumbass needed to eat something  _normal_. And Naruto's dad owned a fucking bakery. Sasuke had no idea how a man, who could make a five tier cake as if it was nothing, wasn't able to prepare an edible pork chop. But this was how it was. Ridiculous.

He grabbed the phone and glared at the screen.

_It wasn’t your fault so leave it_

He stared at the message he's just written, rereading it over and over again. He sighed, deleted the last three words, and hit send. There was no need to be this rough with Naruto. Because it  _really_  wasn’t his fault. None of it was.

* * *

Naruto rolled on his stomach, and let out a loud groan into a pillow. Sasuke was probably tired as hell, after all he couldn't sleep well because of Naruto, and he was in pain, and Naruto was being  _pushy_.

It was difficult for him to not be pushy. He always wanted too much and too fast, and Sasuke's already told him  _no_ , he's even said he wanted Naruto to  _disappear_. And then he said that Naruto wasn’t going to disappear. He needed space, if Naruto ever wanted to return to being friends with him, he needed to give Sasuke  _space_. And this meant that texting him for no reason whatsoever was a bad idea. Still, not even half as bad as trying to invite himself to Sasuke.  _Twice_.

He was the worst.

Sasuke already thought that Naruto was obsessed with him, and  _maybe_  he was  _somewhat_  right. Going to a cram school just because he hoped that Sasuke would change his mind and decide that he wanted them to stay together after all was already pathetic enough.

And yet Naruto felt as if everything was going to crumble to pieces if he wasn’t moving fast. Sasuke wasn't just his  _first_  friend, he was also Naruto's  _best_ friend. Sasuke actually, truly and without a shadow of doubt  _believed_  in Naruto. Naruto had to prove himself to Sasuke just  _once_ , at the very beginning of their friendship. He'd shown Sasuke he was being serious, and afterwards Sasuke simply took Naruto being serious as a fact of life. If Naruto's ever told Sasuke that he was going to be the first person to ever play soccer on the moon, Sasuke would merely say it was going to be a waste of his time. And that was it. He'd just assume that Naruto was going to make it work, and this was the reason why Naruto  _had_  to make it work. Because losing Sasuke's trust would've been the biggest mistake of his life, and he'd be cursing himself for all of eternity if he ever let that happen.

He  _needed_  Sasuke. Sasuke's presence made everything better and back in the days Naruto believed that Sasuke needed him  _too_ , that Sasuke needed someone he could trust one hundred percent, someone, who could share his dream and  _understand_  him. Because not many people were able to understand him, to see through the façade, to notice all these minor cracks that made Sasuke so much more human than anyone else.

But now, when Sasuke already knew of the nature of Naruto’s obsession, infatuation or whatever he wanted to call it… wasn't Naruto just like all these girls? They too had to believe they understood Sasuke. They thought they deserved him because they were in love with him. Naruto… he didn't think he  _deserved_  Sasuke but he couldn't stop himself from wanting him. Especially from wanting him to want Naruto back. It wasn’t the same but it was too similar.

* * *

“How long will you be moping in there?” Itachi asked through the doors to Sasuke’s bedroom. Sasuke turned his head to glare at the doors, willing his brother to go away. He could just pretend he was asleep because Itachi asked his stupid question in his usual, too quiet voice, voice that forced everyone to lean towards him just to hear him. It was a miracle that people actually were trying to hear him, Sasuke was pretty certain that if  _he_  was going to do it, everyone would just ignore him.

Itachi, obviously, never even had to consider it. He was  _the_  prodigy, he excelled in every sphere of life, he was a goddamn miracle child and golden boy, and so people  _wanted_  to hear him.

And he was making their father proud. It was easy to brag about having a son like this, a son that exceeded all the expectations. Sasuke was just… Sasuke. Good enough,  _perhaps_ , but that was all.

“I’m leaving tomorrow evening,” Itachi continued, of course assuming that Sasuke was just ignoring him, and not sleeping. “If you want to talk about something, there won't be a better time—”

“We have nothing to talk about,” Sasuke muttered under his breath. He let out an exasperated sigh when he heard the doors cracking open. “What do you want?” he hissed, side-eying his older brother, who stood in his doorway, smirking at him.

“The real question is what do  _you_  want,” Itachi murmured. “I've heard you had an argument with Naruto—”

“What makes you think I want to discuss it with you?” Sasuke interrupted him.

“It might  _not_  be as bad as you think,” Itachi replied, calm as ever. “If it wasn’t for him, you could’ve already been a champion,” he pointed out. “And someone would’ve scouted you by now—”

“Why do you even care?” Sasuke barked at him.

“You're my  _brother_ ,” Itachi chuckled. “I want what's best for you,” he added. “My couch is already asking if you're talented. I could tell him to—”

“I don't want it,” Sasuke snapped.

“You're being ridiculous,” Itachi complained.

“I don't care,” Sasuke whispered, closing his eyes and making himself look as if he was getting ready for a nap. “I'm tired, so  _leave_ ,” he pleaded.

“Your life would’ve been much easier if you didn't believe that you have to compete with me,” Itachi sighed. Sasuke refrained himself from frowning, from letting Itachi see that he could make him feel anything but boredom. Because right now Itachi might've as well said that Sasuke had no chance to ever surpass him, so he could as well stop trying and spare himself the trouble. It hurt. It hurt much more than Sasuke was willing to admit. “I'm  _not_  someone you need to beat to—”

“Shut up and leave,” Sasuke pleaded. A tired sigh escaped his lips when he heard the doors  _finally_ closing. 

* * *

 

Sasuke’s had no idea just how  _much_  he was moving on a daily basis. He's always known he had a rather  _active_  lifestyle but he'd never noticed how much moving was involved in most people's lives. Getting ready for school was already a torture, and then he had to  _survive_  in there.

He had to suffer through all these girls encircling him and trying to  _help_ , and he could swear that deep down they were happy about him not being able to run away from them. And about him suddenly having so much free time that he had no idea what to do with it.

Really, now all he was busy with was school. He'd go to classes, and then… there was nothing. Everyone he could hang out with had training, and seeing how the team was supposed to play their next match in a week, nobody even  _considered_  missing the training. Usually Naruto had to persuade some of the boys that  _no_ , they couldn't go and do whatever else, that they  _had_ to train if they wanted to win, and now the same guys who preferred to chill, were ushering Naruto to hurry up because they couldn't wait. It would've been a welcome change if it didn't mean that Sasuke had to be left alone. If he wasn't counting the girls, who followed him like a bunch of sharks would follow a hurt, bleeding… fish.

Sasuke felt exactly like a fish out of water.

Ino and Sakura had been insisting that he should come and watch their cheerleader training because they had to know if their new routine was any good, and if Sasuke didn't know that if he did come there, he probably wouldn't see the new routine anyways, he might've agreed. But it wasn’t about the routine, it's never been about any routines.

He guessed he could go and watch the guys train but that would've been rather pathetic.

So he'd go home, and be bored out of his mind.

Naruto's never texted him again, and Sasuke knew he should be glad about it but he wasn't. Because, apparently, Naruto was able to busy himself with something else. It wasn't like Sasuke's  _asked_  but one time Suigetsu asked Sasuke if he knew where Naruto was hurrying to after the training, and Sasuke had no idea but he was guessing it wasn't too meet any of the guys because their trainings were hard, and they would’ve been too tired to hang out every other day.

Perhaps it shouldn't have come off as a surprise that for Naruto busying himself with something or maybe even  _someone_  else was this easy but Sasuke still felt betrayed. And angry at himself because he had no right to feel betrayed. He was the one, who told Naruto to  _stop_ , and so Naruto did stop. And he made it look  _easy_.

Of course.

Of course it was easy. Why wouldn't it be?

And why wasn't it easy for Sasuke?

Sasuke's always believed that the more obsessed one was Naruto but it turned out that Sasuke was wrong, awfully and disgustingly wrong.

He was just hoping that at the check up the doctor was going to tell him that it was going to be just two more weeks because this stillness was killing him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> usually i write something stupid in here but i'm way too tired to do it :P  
> 


	8. Chapter 8

Sasuke's hair was blocking Naruto's view on the blackboard. Back in the days Naruto had believed that Sasuke was using a shit ton of hair gel but _no_ , Sasuke's hair was actually soft in touch, and that ridiculous duck butt was _natural_. The blonde cleared his throat, hoping that Sasuke was _somehow_ going to read his mind, and tilt his head to the right or left. He didn't. Naruto coughed, praying that at least _this_ was going to work. This too didn’t do much.

Sasuke was… it was clear that he wanted to distance himself from Naruto. He was polite, actually _polite_ , and he'd even smile at Naruto whenever Naruto greeted him but that was it, and it wasn't _them_. Before this whole gay thing, Naruto would've just poked Sasuke's back or pull on his hair, and Sasuke would've _moved_. Probably. One time, Naruto’s spent an entire class trying to stick a pen into his hair. It didn't want to stay in there, and that was frustrating as hell, and Sasuke pretended he wasn't noticing Naruto playing with his hair. Now, Naruto was _terrified_ of touching him. And this was why he cleared his throat again, this time louder.

“If you're sick, go see the nurse,” Sasuke grumbled under his breath. Naruto frowned at it. He wasn't sick.

“Can you just like _move_ or something? You're blocking my view,” he complained.

“It's never bothered you before,” Sasuke pointed out in a tired voice. He was right. It's never bothered Naruto before but now Naruto was playing the class nerd, and doing it without being able to pay attention to the class was pretty much impossible, at least for him, he was no genius, he needed to see what's the teacher written.

“I'm trying to _learn_ here,” Naruto whispered in reply, hoping that Sasuke was going to notice that he _was_ capable of being a serious, diligent student.

“Boys, is there something you want to share with the rest of the class?” their teacher, miss Anko, inquired in her creepy, sweet voice that spelled out _trouble_.

“No,” Sasuke replied for both of them and did move his seat a bit to the left, so Naruto could see the blackboard better.

“Then keep your mouth shut,” the teacher warned them, and went back to explaining the logarithmic functions. Naruto already hated everything about them, all he knew was that he was supposed to write log in front of everything. He had no idea what it _did_ , though. It didn't seem like it was making anything easier, it was just a pointless obstruction. He generally disliked math. He _could_ see how some of it could be useful in normal life but logarithm? Who the hell needed logarithm?

Well, it wasn't like he was any better in other subjects. Sasuke was… an okay student. He’s never had any problems and it was clear that he had no trouble with understanding any issue but he'd usually make some minor, minor mistakes, and so he was no genius. The real class nerd was Sakura, who was doing her best at trying to hide how good she was at all this school stuff. And she was one of the people, who would cry about flunking a test, and then get a one hundred on it. It irritated Sasuke way more than he'd ever dare to admit.

Sasuke didn’t really like it when people were better than him at something. Especially if they weren't putting any extra effort to be better than him. He was petty like this. Sometimes Naruto thought that the only reason why Sasuke accepted him as his rival was that he could see how much Naruto had to do to one up him. Well, Sasuke's pettiness didn't really bother Naruto. He himself would sometimes envy others, who were clearly more talented than him but, at the same time, he'd feel proud that he was able to stand his ground against them. It was hard work but it was satisfying as hell. Sasuke too had to work hard but he'd also try to hide how hard he was working, as if it was something shameful, as if he was supposed to be born a master of all trades.

Maybe he felt like he was. Having Itachi as one’s brother couldn't be easy.

“I thought you wanted to _learn_ ,” Sasuke hissed, startling Naruto, who was busy staring at _nothing_. The blonde looked around and realized that the class was already over, that people were leaving for a break, and that the only other person, who wasn't rushing towards the doors, was Sasuke.

“Shit,” he cursed. He got distracted, he got distracted _hard_ , and of course, he was distracted by thinking about Sasuke. Because, if every road led to Rome, all of his thought trains had to eventually stop at the Sasuke station. 

“Your notes are shit,” Sasuke added, giving Naruto's notebook a measuring look.

“Sorry,” the blonde wailed, shoving things into his bag as if there was any reason to do it. Today they had all of their classes in this classroom.

“What are you sorry about?” Sasuke inquired, tilting his head like a curious bird. Naruto’s heart leaped in his chest when he realized that _Sasuke_ _was talking to him_. Out of his own will. He totally started this conversation, and he was _continuing_ it, he didn't just _leave_. “It's _your_ notes,” the boy pointed out.

“Can I borrow yours?” Naruto asked, sending Sasuke a pleading stare. The brunette slowly nodded his head, as if he wasn't certain if he should be lending Naruto anything, and handed him his own notebook. Naruto flipped through it, refraining himself from snorting at Sasuke's shitty handwriting. Sasuke _was_ able to write intelligibly but he was saving this for tests and essays, his regular notes looked as if a chicken, which barely avoided a death by drowning in ink, attacked his notebook. It took Naruto over a _year_ to be able to comfortably read through Sasuke's handwriting. Really, it could double as a code language.

Naruto finally found what he was looking for and started copying the notes, simultaneously stifling a yawn.

“You don’t have to do it _now_ , you can just give it back tomorrow,” Sasuke mumbled out.

“I won't have time later on,” Naruto informed the boy.

“…why?” Sasuke asked a whole minute later, as if he was fighting himself. He probably was. He must've been afraid that acting like he cared would send wrong signal. But _maybe_ this was the time for them to finally make up. Naruto wasn't going to miss this opportunity.

“I'll be busy,” he brushed off the question because he wasn't certain if telling Sasuke that he was so obsessed that he went to a cram school on a faint hope that they'll _somehow_ end up in the same university was a good idea. “The final match of the group stage is this weekend,” he reminded the boy before Sasuke could realize he didn't want to talk to him after all. “I've talked to Asuma, we can still go, like, we’ll just warm the bench. He's talked to the principal, and Tsunade was somewhat okay with it because it's _us_ ,” he announced with pride, “so it'll be all covered by school, and, like, do you want to come?”

“I guess,” Sasuke carefully answered.

“Awesome,” Naruto blurted out. “And you _are_ getting better, right? What's the doctor said?”

“She said I should be fine in a week or two,” Sasuke answered with a heavy sigh. Naruto studied him. He could feel there was a _but_ hidden in there. “But she said I should take it easy for at least a month,” the boy eventually confessed, sitting back on his chair.

“This _sucks_ ,” Naruto murmured before he realized that Sasuke _knew_ it sucked, and that hearing it sucked wasn't making anything better or more bearable. “So, like, what did she mean by taking it easy?”

“That I should minimize the risk of falling down, tripping, being hit, hitting anything,” Sasuke started enumerating, sounding pretty much _done_. “Because the bone needs time to return to its former glory,” he explained with a frown. “But it doesn't really matter. I'll always have the Summer to fully recover—”

“Wait,” Naruto interrupted him. “If you're planning to let someone crack your rib _again_ , sign me out, I'm done with sitting by your bed and wondering if you'll be okay,” he stated in a serious tone. “You wouldn't even _be_ in this situation if you've let me take you off the field back then—”

“It was _your_ decision, captain,” Sasuke snapped, and started raising from the chair. Naruto panicked. It was going _so well_ , and _of course_ he had to ruin it.

“Wait,” he pleaded. “First of all, don't call me captain,” he whined. “Secondly—I've only said I’m not letting you get hurt again, so don't jump to conclusions,” he sighed. “I've never said I'm benching you, I'm just going to be _careful_.”

“Whatever it means,” Sasuke whispered, looking absolutely exhausted.

“It means that I _will_ take you off the field if some other team wants to play dirty,” Naruto sighed. “But I doubt they will. At this level, the stakes are too high, and playing ten versus eleven when even one loss means you're out…. Yeah, I seriously don't think anyone's going to risk it. Especially when they saw that we've already won without you,” he chirped. Then he's realized how it might've sounded like, and he wished he bit his tongue. “And without me,” he hastily added. “And with one player less. We have a strong team,” he stated. Sasuke was merely staring back at him without saying anything for the longest time. Naruto sent the boy a sheepish grin, praying that Sasuke wasn’t going to take this the _wrong way_.

“I wish I haven't told you anything,” Sasuke eventually confessed. “Now you're going to act like a mother hen if someone's going to _stand_ too close to me,” he sighed. Naruto shook his head and hit himself in his chest with his fist to assure the boy that _no_ , it _wasn’t_ going to happen. He _knew_ how important this was to Sasuke. He _knew_ Sasuke thought he should've been scouted by some top university ages ago, and Naruto actually agreed with it because Sasuke definitely deserved to be scouted, and being scouted was impossible if you were benched, and Naruto _really_ didn't want Sasuke to think that his future was in peril because of him. “ _I know you_ ,” Sasuke muttered. “You _won't_ be chill about it. So let's make a deal,” he proposed, and Naruto nodded because what else could he do? “I'll tell Asuma exactly what the doctor's told me, and let's put _him_ in charge of taking me off the field,” he suggested.

“We might as well put _Kakashi_ in this position,” Naruto complained.

“Asuma has more experience than you,” Sasuke pointed out. “I trust him.”

Naruto turned his eyes away from Sasuke, biting on his bottom lip. Somewhere deep inside he _knew_ Sasuke wasn't wrong to trust Asuma because Asuma was a great coach and he wouldn't endanger a player on purpose but, at the same time, during the last game, it was _Naruto_ who wanted to bench Sasuke and protect him, Asuma didn't take him off until Sasuke _passed out_. It was clear that the man wasn’t paying too much attention to one of his star players.

“Okay,” Naruto agreed with a heavy sigh. He was willing to ignore his instincts longer than usually. “But if it'll get really ugly, I'll pull you out,” he said. “Sorry, I'm _not_ letting you hurt yourself just because Asuma wasn't watching you.”

“Bumping into me isn't ugly,” Sasuke whispered. “Anything that's a part of a normal game is okay.”

“Fine,” Naruto scowled.

“Good,” Sasuke replied. The blonde copied the last equation, and handed Sasuke his notebook. Their fingers touched, and Naruto realized that the last time he's touched Sasuke was in that bus. He was missing it. And he was absolutely terrified of it. “And this is just a suggestion but perhaps you should keep your eyes on the ball, and not on _me_ ,” Sasuke added. Naruto's face got so hot he could swear that if someone cracked an egg over it, it would fry in under one minute.

“Sorry,” he mumbled out. Sasuke sent him a weird look but he eventually shrugged his shoulders, gave Naruto a small wave, and left the classroom, leaving the blonde one hundred percent embarrassed.

* * *

 

Sasuke stifled a yawn, waiting with his team for the bus. It was late in the evening, they were supposed to arrive to their hotel at around two or three a.m., go to sleep there, and play a game at ten a.m. on Saturday. Some boys were giddy, some were panicking, some looked like they didn't care about anything, and Kiba was bragging about his future victory. And Sasuke _knew_ he shouldn’t wish his team and teammates anything bad because it was stupid and immature but Kiba himself wasn’t too mature, so—

“I can't remember when was the last time I've seen a game from the bench,” Naruto chirped.

“It's almost the same like watching it from the stands,” Suigetsu replied. “Especially since there's _no_ way you're going to play,” he snorted. He had to rub it in. Of course he had to. Suigetsu was annoying and loud but he was also honest to a fault. And sometimes Sasuke was stupid enough to find him entertaining. And he had a much better taste in movies than Naruto. Not _good_ taste, just _better_. Because Suigetsu was a huge fan of martial arts films. He had a huge collection of them, and it seemed that he'd seen them all at least three times. He knew most of the dialogues by heart. Well. It was _martial arts movies_. Sasuke was pretty certain that if he was to improvise something, he might just _guess_ what the characters were going to say.

Naruto liked movies with colorful posters. That was it. This was the criterion that needed to be fulfilled to interest the dumbass in a movie. It didn't even matter what the movie was about, Naruto didn't even care about trailers, no, he just wanted to watch a movie with a pretty poster.

“ _Har_ _har_ ,” the blonde sighed. “At least you'll have someone cheering for you,” he said and showed Suigetsu a tongue.

“Where are your pompoms?” Suigetsu asked in an innocent voice. “And where are the girls?”

“They didn't wake up on time,” Naruto answered. It wasn't like this, they just weren't riding to away games on such a low level. But two weeks from now, when the Toads were going to play the quarterfinals, the girls were going with them. Sasuke was already mentally preparing himself for it. “And I forgot the pompoms, they're at home together with the rest of my cheerleader uniform.”

“Stop being stupid,” Shikamaru complained.

“Stop being boring,” Suigetsu retorted.

“I'm not boring, I'm _bored_ ,” Shikamaru yawned, as if to accentuate his words. Once again, everyone but Sai yawned in reply. “Naruto, you kind of _had_ to come, being the captain and all that,” Shikamaru started, “but I'll never understand you, Sasuke. You could've been at home _sleeping_ ,” he murmured, sounding as if he couldn't imagine anything more stupid. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders in reply. 

“I wanted to see the game,” he answered.

“Daww, and here I was, thinking that perhaps you were missing us and wanted to spend some quality time together,” Suigetsu pretended to whine.

“With _you_?” Shikamaru muttered as if it was a rhetoric question. Maybe it was. There weren't too many people, who would _willingly_ spend their time with the obnoxious boy. If it wasn't for Naruto, Sasuke would've been among them but Naruto kind of desensitized Sasuke to being annoying.

“Boys, stop yapping, I need to make a call,” Asuma grunted, puffing out a blueish cloud of smoke into Shikamaru's unhappy face. Sasuke _knew_ why their coach was doing it. Shikamaru used to smoke. He stopped after Asuma found out, and now their coach was deriving some sadistic pleasure from making the boy smell tobacco. Asuma was kind of a hypocrite.

The team nodded and shut up, and Asuma called the driver, scolding him for being this late. It must've worked because the bus came less than five minutes later. Sasuke entered it, and took his usual place at the back. He barely refrained himself from letting the relief show on his face when Naruto sat next to him. Out of habit, he put away everything he didn't need, and kept the stuff he wanted to have nearby away from his lap. As if he expected Naruto to ever lay his head there again.

“You look better than before,” Naruto blurted out, and slapped his own face immediately afterwards, “shit, _no_ , I mean—it seems like it doesn't hurt anymore,” he clarified.

“It hurts less,” Sasuke quietly admitted, deciding to ignore Naruto acting weird. “I should be able to play in the next game.”

“Cool,” the dumbass chirped, his tanned cheek swelling and getting redder. He must've slapped himself pretty hard. “Do you prefer the new layout or do you prefer to go back to the previous one?” Naruto questioned, audibly weighing his words.

“I'd prefer to have you on the sidelines with me,” Sasuke confessed. “You were an okay sweeper but the rest of the guys are clearly unused to their new positions,” he pointed out in a whisper. “It's not the best time to experiment.”

“Yeah, you're right,” Naruto agreed, looking much more relaxed. “I prefer mirroring your position too,” he confessed. “I mean,” he stuttered, “you _know_ what I mean,” he whispered in a pleading voice.

“Stop getting so worked up, you're not even playing now,” Sasuke hissed. “And this game doesn't really matter anyways. It might mean something to the other team but we’re already in the quarterfinals,” he pointed out.

“I still want us to win,” Naruto disagreed. “It's about morale. What if one of us—or both—have to leave the field again? I want them to know they’re strong enough on their own.”

“This means Kiba won't ever shut up about his imaginary superiority,” Sasuke snorted.

“You're both immature,” Naruto sighed with a smile. “But it turns out Kiba knows you better than I do—”

“And _where_ did you get this idea?” Sasuke interrupted him.

“He was right about you, and it didn't even cross my mind,” Naruto admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “Sorry—”

“I wasn’t exactly open about it,” Sasuke whispered. “And Kiba must've gotten lucky in his stupidity. Let's drop it.”

“Sure,” the blonde agreed after a few seconds of hesitation. “I'm glad you came,” he confessed.

“Why is everyone acting so surprised?” Sasuke complained. “It's not like I have anything better to do,” he admitted.

“Well, for starters, you're _not_ playing, we might not be facing this team off ever again,” the blonde started enumerating, “so there's nothing for you to gain from coming here,” he chirped. “Especially since it’s Saturday, so you're not even getting a day off from school from this,” he chuckled.

“I still enjoy watching football,” Sasuke pointed out in a tired voice. 

“Hey, I've told you I'm _glad_ you came,” Naruto replied. “So, uh, we can watch it together,” he offered as if they haven't watched countless matches together before. Seeing Naruto this hyper aware of himself and what he was saying was leaving Sasuke with a bitter taste at the back of his tongue. He _liked_ that Naruto had no brain-to-mouth filter. He didn't want the blonde to not be himself whenever he was around Sasuke. It made no sense because then it _wasn’t_ Naruto, not really. “This time we're sleeping in one of those hostels,” the blonde informed him.

Sasuke frowned. He didn't like sleeping in hostels because it meant he had to room with at least four other boys. Rooming with Naruto was surprisingly _fine_. Because Naruto was falling asleep early and quickly, he wasn’t too easy to wake up, and he wasn't snoring. A perfect sleepmate if there ever was one.

“I've brought you earplugs,” Naruto whispered. Sasuke's frown deepened. “I know you don’t like them but it's better than nothing,” he argued, sounding utterly offended.

“At least tell me we’re not sleeping with Shikamaru,” Sasuke pleaded. He _knew_ what he was going to hear. It's always worked like this. They would divide themselves in pairs and then draw lots. Shikamaru and Chouji were most definitely the worst two, worse than even Kiba and Shino. Naruto shrugged his shoulders in reply, and Sasuke let out a frustrated groan.

If they ended up with Shikamaru and Chouji… they were both loud snorers, and Sasuke was a light sleeper. Chouji was also turning _a lot_ , and they were generally _noisy_. Shikamaru was going to play on his phone for hours, and so their room was going to look like a shitty dance club. And normally Naruto _perhaps_ could somehow persuade them to go to sleep like normal people but now, when neither he nor Sasuke were playing… this was a lost cause.

* * *

 

Naruto jerked up, startled when someone shook his shoulder to wake him up. When he cracked his eyes open, he saw Kakashi sending him his usual aloof smile, and shoving a bag with lots straight into his face. Naruto looked around the bus, noticing that everyone, who wasn’t sleeping, was staring right at him, as if he was to decide the fate of the world. The blonde licked his lips, only now noticing that Sasuke was asleep, his head resting against the window, his leg pressed against Naruto’s. It was pleasantly warm.

“We've decided to give you the honor of drawing first,” Kakashi told him. “There's three of every block.”

“…right,” Naruto replied, his throat and tongue dry. He reached into the sack, feeling the familiar wooden blocks. They had all the exact same shape, they were just painted in different colors. And it didn't matter which one he was going to pull out, no, now everything was going to depend on what the others would draw. He bit the inside of cheek, and finally took out a block. It was the orange one, and so far it meant nothing.

Kakashi nodded his head and turned to the next pair of boys. Sai drew a blue block. Konohamaru picked a blue one too, looking absolutely devastated about it. Naruto didn't mind it. Sure, Konohamaru's worship did rub his ego in a nice way but it could end up being tiring. Then it was Shikamaru’s turn, and Naruto wondered if he shouldn't wake Sasuke up for it but eventually decided against it. It could've been Sasuke’s last minutes of sleep. It was still a miracle that Sasuke fell asleep during the ride, it would happen like once a year because normally _everything_ was bothering him. The shaking, the conversations, the snoring, the sounds of people eating—he had to be seriously tired to pass out like this.

And then Shikamaru pulled out an orange block, and Naruto started to wonder if Sasuke and he could just stay in the bus. His fingers unknowingly tightened on Sasuke's knee, and the boy grumbled something in his sleep, already sounding unhappy. Naruto wasn't too keen to picture how he'd sound after he’d learn whom he was rooming with. And then it got even worse when Shino pulled out another orange block.

“ _Shit_ ,” he cursed under his breath. “Sasuke,” he whispered, leaning over the sleeping boy.

“Wha—?”

“We’re here,” he informed the boy, who cleared his throat and opened his eyes. The whites of his eyes were all bloodshot, and he looked like shit. Naruto took a deep breath. “We’re rooming with Kiba and Shino,” he started.

“Could've been worse,” Sasuke replied in a raspy voice.

“And with Shikamaru and Chouji,” Naruto added, feeling almost as if it was _his_ guilt.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Sasuke muttered in a hushed voice. Naruto moved away to let the other boy stand up and grab his things but Sasuke didn't move even for an inch. “This sucks,” he complained.

“In the worst case scenario, you'll catch up on sleep when we'll be riding home,” Naruto tried to cheer him up, knowing he was going to fail. If they _were_ playing tomorrow, he'd perhaps be able to talk someone into switching with them. Hell, he could easily persuade some first years to take their place but this wouldn't have been _fair_. Because, theoretically, Sasuke and he weren't needed, they didn't _have_ to rest. If anyone was switching, it should've been Kiba and Shino.

“I don't think so,” Sasuke sighed, finally grabbing his bag and standing up. He actually waited for Naruto to grab his things too. It seemed that _maybe_ their friendship wasn't as over as Sasuke'd declared it to be. Naruto slowly trudged after his best friend, and then they entered the hostel together with the rest of their team. All the boys looked groggy, so there was a chance that everyone would just _go to sleep_.

* * *

And of course they didn't. By the time they reached their room, Kiba was already talking about the way the receptionist winked at him, Shino and Shikamaru were telling him that she _didn't_ wink at him, Chouji was complaining about them arguing, and Sasuke looked like he deeply regretted coming there.

“Why does it even matter?” Naruto whined. “Just shut up and go to sleep—”

“Gross,” Shikamaru decided. “First I need to take a shower.”

Sasuke groaned at this. Naruto knew _why_. This hostel had like four bathrooms, they were all located in the corridor, and this meant that people were going to fight themselves over a shower, and it was going to take _ages_. Noisy, noisy ages. Naruto himself didn't _really_ care—or, to be more precise—he did care but it didn't bother _him_ , it was bothering _Sasuke_. And Naruto didn't like it when Sasuke was being bothered.

“She totally winked at me,” Kiba barked.

“Who cares?” Sasuke hissed at him.

“She didn't wink at you,” Shikamaru disagreed, completely ignoring Sasuke.

“You weren't even _looking_ at her,” Kiba whined. “You're just being jealous, this is what it is—”

“Shut up and let us _sleep_ ,” some unknown voice muttered through closed doors. Then the doors opened, and Naruto stood face to face with the opposing team captain. _Awkward_. This was the first time they were going to play against them. And it was one of the powerhouse schools. One of those against which Itachi had used to play. “Don't you know how to behave yourself?”

“We're terribly sorry,” Naruto mumbled out, sending the guy an apologetic smile. He was blond, had a long hair, and looked like trouble. “We’ll stay quiet—”

“ _You_ shut up,” Kiba demanded, thwarting Naruto's efforts to solve this peacefully. “We’ll _crush_ you—”

“Kiba, shut up,” Naruto snapped. “Once again: sorry, I’ll keep them under control,” he promised, grabbing Kiba’s arm and giving him a hard squeeze.

“You don't look like you're in control,” the blond boy laughed at him. “Is this the first time your mommas let you leave your home town?”

“Shut up and go to sleep,” Sasuke snapped at the stranger.

“Oh,” the boy smirked, giving Sasuke a measuring look. “You must be that worse Uchiha—”

“I wonder if you'll stay this funny _after_ tomorrow's game,” Naruto interrupted him. He saw Sasuke’s eyes widening, and he saw that for a split second the boy had no idea how to react to the taunt. He chose to appear unfazed and slightly annoyed but Naruto _knew_ that the stupid blond guy used the perfect words to upset his best friend. The idiot opened his mouth to say something more but Naruto was faster. “You do you, we’re going to rest before the match,” he sneered, and turned on his heel, praying that the rest would follow him. Fortunately, they did. Kiba merely cursed under his breath and said something about pulling the idiot’s hair out or cutting them in his sleep. Shikamaru actually chuckled at that, and so _somehow_ they managed to keep their tempers in check. “Tomorrow, I want you to play your best,” Naruto whispered after he heard the doors closing. “Make me proud.”

“Aye, aye, captain,” Kiba snorted. “Now I'm regretting you won't be here with us. I like playing with you when you're pissed off.”

“I prefer it when you're calm,” Chouji yawned. Naruto too preferred to play with calm. He was _usually_ collected, but he’s never been able to stay collected when it was about Sasuke. And Sasuke didn't say a word ever since he's been called a worse Uchiha. And he couldn't even play in the next game to prove to the idiot that he _wasn't_ the worse one.

“I'm jealous, Sasuke, they didn't know who _I_ was,” Kiba whined. “Must feel nice to be so well-known.”

“I doubt it felt nice,” Shino stated in his dead voice. He was right. Somehow, he managed to be pretty much always right. If he wasn’t so passive, he would've been terrifying.

“What do you know? Nobody ever remembers you,” Kiba yawned. Sasuke wasn’t even looking at them. Naruto breathed out, and opened the doors to their room. It was tiny, and cluttered with bunk beds. “I'm taking the top one,” Kiba called as if he thought that Shino was going to fight him for it.

“I hate bunk beds,” Shikamaru complained. Chouji nodded his head in agreement. “Let's play rock, paper, scissors,” he suggested to his friend, who once again agreed with him.

“I'm taking the top one too,” Sasuke muttered, throwing his bag on the mattress, and climbing on the top. Naruto shrugged his shoulders, and threw himself on the thin mattress, feeling every spring pushing against his back. He watched Shikamaru winning and choosing the bottom bunk. Then he saw Sasuke jumping down, already dressed in his sleeping clothes and ready to go and brush his teeth. He didn't wait for anyone to follow him, he didn't say anything, he just _left_. Naruto muffled a frustrated groan, and fished out his own stuff. Then he practically ran after Sasuke, barely able to catch up with him. “What do you want?” Sasuke asked him the moment Naruto was in the hearing range.

“Don’t let this douche get to you,” Naruto sighed. “You know he's not right, he was just trying to upset you—”

“I don’t care,” Sasuke barked at him, taking out his brush, putting some toothpaste on it, and shoving it into his mouth, looking like he wanted to bite it in half.

“You _do_ ,” Naruto disagreed. At this point Sasuke stopped acknowledging his presence. Naruto felt as if he was made invisible. He took a deep breath, approached the boy, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and forced Sasuke to turn around and face him. “It’s frustrating when you let some random dudes get under your skin like this but then you refuse to listen to people, who actually _know_ you,” Naruto stated. Sasuke's mouth was filled with minty foam, and so he was forced to remain mute. It was probably for the best because he looked quite pissed off by being interrupted. “Itachi’s reached the peak of his abilities very quick,” Naruto continued. “But he's already reached it, and he's _not_ moving forward. We've seen him play, he's exactly like he was two years ago,” he argued. “In the meantime, you're still getting better. It might be a _slower_ process but you've either already surpassed him or you're going to do it soon,” he murmured. Sasuke rolled his eyes, the toothbrush awkwardly sticking out of his foam-smeared mouth and looking ridiculous.

“Someone might come in,” Sasuke informed the blonde, barely intelligible. Naruto blinked when some of the foam ended up on his face and in his eyes. He's generally been sprayed with toothpaste, and Sasuke clearly didn't care.

“There's nothing new they could say about us,” Naruto pointed out. “I know it's frustrating that you won't get to play and show that idiot how wrong he is but our team can still put him in place, and even if they don't,” he paused, “we’ll win the championships. You're better than all these idiots put together, so don't dwell on some random bullshit spewed by some random jackass, _please_.”

“…but he's right,” Sasuke sighed. “When Itachi was my age, he was already playing on international level. I haven't even won the nationals yet,” he hissed.

“No, no, no, _no,_ don't do this to yourself,” Naruto pleaded. “I've told you already, it's true that Itachi's reached his peak like super soon and great for him but you're _not_ worse than him. Itachi's pretty much _finished_ by now, like, there's nothing more for him to achieve but you can still do _anything_ ,” he whispered. “Think about it, it's much better to constantly develop, even at a slower pace, than to stand still,” he pointed out. His hands let go Sasuke's shirt, and traveled to his shoulders. “Besides, you're like one of the best players in our generation. You've achieved _a lot_ , let yourself notice it.”

“Am I supposed to thank you for the pep talk?” Sasuke questioned, audibly trying to sound unimpressed and failing. Naruto sent the boy a cheeky grin, and pulled him in for a hug, gently patting Sasuke's back. Sasuke wasn't fighting him, his body got limper, and it felt so right that Naruto’s heart felt as if it's been pierced with a rusty stiletto. He could feel the way Sasuke's chest moved when he was breathing, how his muscles were tensing and relaxing with every minor move… it was painfully soothing. “I can't believe I'm saying this, but I want Kiba to win,” Sasuke said in a hushed voice, his breath tickling Naruto's neck.

And then it was chaos, because they could hear fast approaching footsteps, Sasuke’s decided for both of them that they should hide in a toilet, and then they heard the doors being thrown open, and it was too late to act as if nothing's happened.

“What the fuck, Sasuke?” Naruto snorted, simultaneously climbing on the toilet, so nobody could see _two_ pair of feet. Sasuke covered the blonde's mouth with his hand, and gestured him to be quiet. Naruto was barely able to contain the laughter bubbling inside of him. “You've put us in a much more compromising situation than the one we were in,” he said, Sasuke’s hand muffling his words.

“I wasn’t thinking straight,” Sasuke hissed at him.

“Yup, you definitely weren't,” Naruto snorted again. He could recognize the voices. It was Udon and Konohamaru, and Konohamaru was obviously too excited and loud enough that neither Naruto nor Sasuke had to really worry about being heard.

“Oh, hey, someone's in here,” Udon announced in his nasal voice. Sasuke glared daggers at Naruto, as if taunting him to say something.

“What, is the captain here?!” Konohamaru exclaimed, sounding as if finding himself in the same bathroom as Naruto was his dream coming true. Maybe it really was. Konohamaru's room was two floors above. He'd have to pass two bathrooms to get into this one.

“No, it's just me,” Sasuke replied, simultaneously rubbing his forehead in a pretty much I-give-up way.

“Ah, so the captain’s going to come here soon,” Konohamaru chirped. Sasuke shook his head, sending Naruto a faint smile. Naruto smiled back, perched on the toilet seat as if his life depended on it.

“He's already left,” Sasuke informed the younger boy. He was answered with a disappointed sigh. Naruto tapped his knee with his fingers.

“Are you okay?” Udon asked. Sasuke made an annoyed face. “You're just _standing_ there, is something wrong?”

“I'm feeling sick,” Sasuke answered, sounding pissed off. Naruto barely stopped himself from bursting out laughing. “I want to be left alone so do your thing and _leave_ ,” he hissed.

“Sure,” Udon agreed. “Oh hi, Sai,” he greeted the boy, who must've just entered the bathroom. Naruto breathed in, trying to calm himself down and _not_ laugh. “Sasuke's here and he's feeling sick,” Udon informed the boy.

“What's wrong, Sasuke?” Sai questioned, knocking on their bathroom stall. “Feeling shy? Want us to leave?” he laughed. “Sorry, I think I might stay here for quite long,” he chirped. “Where's Naruto? Brewing you a tea?”

“ _No_ ,” Sasuke growled at the boy. “Piss off.”

“I'll go look for him. I'm sure he wouldn't want to leave you _alone_ when you're feeling this sick,” Sai murmured. “Because he can't be locked in this tiny stall with you, eh?” he asked, and Naruto heard the doors to the neighboring stall open. “Whatcha doing?” Sai inquired, peeking at them from above. Naruto grabbed Sasuke's shirt to keep himself in balance, shoved his face into Sasuke’s stomach, and started laughing.

“The captain’s _there_?!” Konohamaru questioned.

“Nah, it's just Sasuke doing disgusting stuff,” Sai answered. “Sasuke, that's nasty. Jerking off in a public bathroom—”

“I'll literally kill you,” Sasuke growled at the boy.

“Oh? I'm waiting,” Sai yawned. “But you need to finish your thing first. Go on, you don't have to stop on my accord. After all you can't leave the bathroom with a raging boner,” he said.

“Eww,” Konohamaru complained. “Udon, we’re _leaving_ ,” he decided for both of them. Naruto heard them leaving a few seconds later. He still couldn't stop himself from laughing. His face was red and stained with tears.

“There are _children_ here,” Sai lectured them, pretending to be offended.

“The best thing is,” Naruto started, choking on laughter, “that we were just _standing_ there,” he chortled. “Holy shit, what was that?!”

“Shut up,” Sasuke complained. “And if I were you,” he added, pointing at Sai, “I'd watch my shadow because I _am_ going to get back at you.”

“Mhm, sure,” Sai agreed, taking out his phone, and snapping a picture of them. “Kiba would've _loved_ this,” he murmured.

“Sai, not funny,” Naruto scolded him, finally calming down. “Delete the photo.”

“You can't take me off the field,” Sai pointed out, sounding bored. “And I've just saved you some serious embarrassment. I don't think I like being threatened like this. One would think I deserve _gratitude_.”

“Yes, you were very nice, now delete the photo—”

“You’ve made it look like I was jacking off in here,” Sasuke protested, interrupting Naruto.

“Would you rather have people think that our captain was giving you a head?”

“He _wasn’t_ ,” Sasuke barked.

“Because you were interrupted,” Sai replied.

“ _No_ ,” Naruto disagreed. “We were just _talking_. I wasn’t going to suck him off,” he said. “So really, Sai, thanks for making them leave but now you have to stop acting like a dick,” he concluded. Sai rolled his eyes, sighed, and deleted the photo.

“You're all _so_ boring,” he complained and disappeared. Naruto shook his head, and stood up to finally leave the accursed stall when he was interrupted by some wild screams.

“Sai! Kiba’s said that Naruto left after Sasuke, and that he still hasn't come back to the room,” Konohamaru cried, running into the bathroom. “Sasuke, _when_ did he leave?! I've heard you guys were threatened by the enemy captain, we need to look for Naruto,” he yelled, already panicking. Soon there were more footsteps, and the whole bathroom was buzzing with screams of blood-hungry teenagers.

Naruto looked up at Sasuke, shook his head, and sent him an apologetic look. Sasuke nodded and looked sideways.

“He's _here_ ,” he announced, his voice carrying over the angry chants. He stepped back from the toilet, turned around, and opened the doors. “We wanted to talk _in private_ ,” he growled, glaring at the boys. Naruto peeked out from behind his back. Their whole team was there. It would've been touching if it wasn’t so stupid.

“I'm okay,” Naruto informed his teammates. Who were just staring at him as if they saw him for the first time in their lives. Naruto cleared his throat. His cough sounded too loud in the deafening silence.

“This is much better than I've anticipated,” Sai chuckled. “Shoo, shoo, children, mommy and daddy need their alone time—”

“We seriously weren't doing anything weird,” Naruto scowled.

“You've made us _worry_ ,” Kiba yelled at him. “You _idiots_ , you're _so_ lucky that we've came here first, I wanted to go straight into that guy’s room,” he snapped. “He could’ve already been in the hospital, and you're all like _hahaha_ _we totally weren't fucking_ , like _who cares_?!”

“Sorry,” Naruto mumbled out.

“Ye, you better be sorry,” Kiba huffed.

Soon they were interrupted by a sound of angry knocking, and the doors were thrown open, revealing a pissed off Kakashi wearing pajamas, which looked like they were thousands of years old.

“What’s going on in here?” Kakashi growled at them. He looked as if he was Cthulhu woken up from his eternal slumber by some noob cultist. _They_ were the noob cultist, and they were going to end up _dead_. “The receptionist called me, she's said that if you won't start behaving this very instant, she's throwing us all out,” Kakashi muttered. He was much better at looking strict and angry than Asuma. “I don't care if you need to piss, you're _all_ going back to the beds this instant. The first one to open their mouth is coming _home_. On foot. With all of our luggage.”

“It's my fault, sorry,” Naruto mumbled out, stepping forward. “It won't happen again,” he promised. Kakashi sent him a measuring look and slowly nodded his head.

“If I hear _any_ sound, I'm stripping you off the captain's title,” Kakashi informed him. “And you won't be playing anymore matches. And now boys, show me how much you appreciate your captain standing up for you, and go to _sleep_.”

“It's not his—” Konohamaru started but Naruto shook his head, and the boy shut up.

“Thank you, we’ll behave,” Naruto promised, grabbed his things and left the bathroom immediately after Kakashi gave them one final nod and disappeared.

“What a dick,” Sai chirped. Naruto pressed a finger against his lips to make him stay quiet. He did. In the end, they all listened to him.

“At least I'll be able to fall asleep now,” Sasuke let out a tired sigh as he passed Naruto on the way to their room. Naruto smiled at that. He was somewhat _happy_ that they were interrupted like this. Otherwise the topic of _what_ they were doing in that stall could appear more enticing, and yes, they _weren't_ doing anything but it wasn't like Naruto would've minded if they _were_. Even when he was laughing and pressing his face into Sasuke’s stomach to muffle the sound, he couldn't help but notice how _nice_ Sasuke felt under his touch. How he _wouldn't_ mind it if there was no shirt separating his cheek from Sasuke's body. And it wasn’t fair, it definitely wasn't fair, especially _now_ , when he was already one hundred percent certain that Sasuke wasn’t interested. Naruto shouldn't be enjoying moments like this, _stolen_ moments. Because it wasn’t something Sasuke was willing to give him, it was something Naruto was taking for himself.

“I love you,” Naruto mouthed, no sound escaping his lips. He's hoped it would make him feel better, that it would _ease_ the pressure that was crushing his heart but if anything, it just made everything worse.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bah, this is one of these transition chapters, in which nothing really happens but they're kind of needed
> 
> also, this one is over 7k words long because if it was 3-4 k long then there seriously wouldn't be anything happening in here :'D
> 
> And I don't like this chapter but I needed one of these ~nothing ever happens and i wonder~
> 
> and this is why my chapters are so long. I've wrote the same exact things in three different ways and think it's acceptable
> 
> so yeah, nothing happens :'D
> 
> Thank you for all your support and comments, you're being really nice to me <3
> 
> ~Isolation is not good for me~
> 
> EDIT: I was kind of curious what my competition is, so I checked the relationship tag for recently updated, and whoa, all these cool and serious stories and you're reading this :'D but it's good to know that me wasting my time results in you wasting yours, like, this is fair :'D
> 
> EDIT II: lol guys, I've written faith instead of fate and NOBODY pointed it out. I usually write during the night on my phone using swype and uh, I don't always notice that I've made a mistake :'D do tell me, please :Y


	9. Chapter 9

_Can’t you lie still for more than one min?!_

Naruto stared at the angry text, trying to _not_ grin like a madman. He felt ridiculously happy that Sasuke texted him in the middle of the night. Even though Sasuke was lying like three feet above him. It was dumb and pointless, and Naruto felt very much at home with it.

_I dunno what's ur mattress made of but mine is just springs and pain oAo and it’s a miracle that u can ever hear me moving over that cacophony u call music щ_ _（ﾟ_ _Д_ _ﾟ_ _щ_

Naruto smiled to himself when he heard Sasuke curse the second he got the text. The rest of the boys were already sleeping, Shikamaru was snoring so loudly that it sounded as if he was whistling, Chouji was constantly grunting something in his sleep, Kiba was one of the normal snorers (if something like this even existed), and Shino must've died in his sleep because he was neither moving nor making a single sound, and if it wasn’t the usual for him, Naruto would've already been checking his pulse. And then there was Sasuke, who must've been trying to muffle the outside noise with music. And it seemed that his plan was falling.

_I have a cracked rib and yet I’m able to lie still_

_This can't be healthy tho :U u should change ur position every now and then yenno_

“Naruto, I'm serious, _stop_ moving,” Sasuke hissed at him from above. As if Naruto was the loudest one. “And stop sending me pointless texts, these beeps are infuriating,” he complained in a hushed voice. It sounded like he gave up on listening to music. Or maybe he just wanted to hear Naruto’s reply.

“And how do you know I wasn't sleeping? Maybe I _was_ , and you woke me up,” Naruto whispered back. He was answered with an exasperated sigh.

“When you're asleep, you don't move. At all,” Sasuke explained. Shikamaru snored louder than usually. He should probably check his nose or throat, or whatever else, all Naruto knew was that he had to check _something_ because snoring this loud couldn't be normal, and maybe Shikamaru’s life was in danger because he'd eventually snore himself to death, like, wasn't snoring like _choking_? Was Shikamaru just choking all night long _every_ night?!

“Do you ever wonder how in the hell can they all just _sleep_?” Naruto questioned. “I mean, you're just weird but I’m perfectly capable of sleeping like a normal person, and it's _impossible_ to sleep when Shika's around,” he chuckled. “And they’re playing a match tomorrow—today, actually they're playing a match _today_ , and they're just sleeping as if they had nothing to worry about,” he pondered.

“When did I make you think that me telling you to lie still was an invitation to talk?” Sasuke asked, sounding tired. But not angry, just _tired_. Naruto smiled when he heard the boy yawn.

“If I was waiting for your invitation, we'd never be friends,” he pointed out in a content voice. He grinned when he heard Sasuke snort. Chouji cleared his throat, so they remained silent for a longer while, not wanting to wake anyone up. “We should return to sending texts,” Naruto suggested in a hushed tone. “They need their rest.”

“I don't want to hear anymore beeps,” Sasuke complained.

“Then mute your phone,” Naruto replied.

“Then I won't know if you wrote something, and I don't feel like pointlessly staring at the screen,” the other boy sighed. Naruto rolled his eyes. Sleepy Sasuke was whiny Sasuke, and there wasn't much that could be done about it but waiting it out.

“Drop down your arm, and I'll hand you my phone,” the blonde offered. “It’s quiet and we’ll both know when the other is done with writing,” he stated, proud of himself for coming up with the idea. He heard Sasuke let out a particularly loud sigh, and then he saw an arm dangling from above. Naruto smiled, and handed his phone to Sasuke. Soon enough, the hand returned.

_This is stupid_

Naruto huffed and made a face at the phone as if Sasuke could actually see him frown.

_Then y r u doing it? :Y_

Naruto pressed the cell into Sasuke’s hands, watching pale fingers gently closing around it.

_I'm bored. You didn't remove my fingerprint from your phone_

Naruto hummed under his breath. Well, Sasuke was right. His fingerprint was still saved in Naruto’s phone. It's never seemed like there was a reason to delete it.

_U wanted 2 remove me from ur life, not the other way around_

“I didn't,” Sasuke protested, sounding annoyed. “And start using actual words, you're not saving any time by writing like a dumbass,” he hissed.

“You’d be surprised by how much time I'm saving,” Naruto replied, trying to keep himself quiet and failing. “And you _did_ , you've said you wanted me to disappear, and you suddenly don't want to go to the same university as me, and—”

“Shut up, you two,” Shikamaru scowled. “You’ve caused enough troubles today, don't you think?”

“Sorry,” Naruto sighed. A few minutes later he was blinded by his own phone screen.

_Back then I didn't think I could still be friends with you_

Naruto glared at the words. Then he finally pulled the phone from Sasuke's cold hand, and started writing a reply.

_Wow I'm honored. It seriously bothers u this much????_

“What?” Sasuke mumbled out immediately after he got the phone back.

“What _what_?” Naruto asked.

“ _Shut up_ ,” Shikamaru whined. “You're being _so_ loud—”

“Look who's talking,” Kiba yawned. “Go to sleep guys.”

“Right, sorry,” Naruto sighed. If they hadn't had a close encounter of Kakashi kind before, he would've just made Sasuke leave the room with him but he had a hunch that if he dared to put even one foot outside, Kakashi would hunt him down and actually go through with his threat of stripping Naruto of the captain's title.

_I have no idea what you're talking about_

Naruto turned on his stomach, and groaned into the pillow. He's kind of hoped they'd never go back to this topic again.

_The text, duh. I get that u r put off by the idea but there's no reason 2 freak out like this_ _ಠ_ ___ _ಠ_

He heard Sasuke crash a curse between his lips, and then there was just the sound of angry tapping. Naruto felt glad that he had glued that stupid protective glass to his phone screen because otherwise it would've got cracked. Sasuke had no consideration. And then, when his arm lowered to hand Naruto the phone, he practically threw it at the blonde.

_What idea do you think I’m put off by????_

Naruto rolled his eyes.

_Did u hit ur head too hard when u cracked ur rib and passed out? :U_

“For fuck's sake, Naruto, just _tell me_ ,” Sasuke growled and returned the phone to Naruto without writing anything. The blonde closed his eyes, feeling as if his heart was going to pound its way out through his chest, cracking the bones and tearing the flesh.

_Well I kind of asked u out???_

Naruto heard something _fall_. Then he heard a long stream of curses. Jumbled up, messed up words that didn't make much sense but sounded angry. He lied on his back, and stared at the bunk above him. Finally, a hand appeared and dropped the phone on Naruto's face.

_We're leaving._

Naruto blinked.

_We can't leave, Kakashi's going 2_

Naruto wasn't given enough time to finish the text because a few seconds later Sasuke was already standing by his bed, looking absolutely pissed off. Naruto had no idea if he preferred to face the wrath of Sasuke or Kakashi but he knew that Sasuke's was much more certain and unavoidable, so he put his phone away, and obediently followed after his best friend. He didn't even put on any shoes, Sasuke just pulled him into the hallway, ignoring Shikamaru's angry complaints.

“What’s happened?” Naruto asked in a whisper, carefully moving forward. Sasuke merely huffed in response, he didn't even slow down, and when they were near the bathroom doors, he grabbed Naruto’s arm and pretty much shoved him inside. Then he turned around, glared at the blonde, raised his index finger as if he was about to say something smart, gave up, and hid his face in his linked hands.

“You're a complete moron,” he blurted out. Naruto waited for a continuation because it couldn't be _it_ , Sasuke wouldn't pull him out of bed for something like _this_ but the continuation never came.

“So can we go back now?”

“ _No_ ,” Sasuke barked in reply. “You've said it was a _joke_.”

“Are you seriously going to freak out about it? I thought you were already _done_ with it,” Naruto complained.

“ _Was it a joke_?” Sasuke hissed.

“Why does it even matter now—”

“ _Was it a joke?”_ Sasuke repeated.

Naruto opened his mouth to answer him but he was interrupted by a sound of angry knocking. He turned his head and saw Shikamaru enter the bathroom.

“Piss off, Shikamaru,” Sasuke growled at the boy.

“It's like five a.m. I know you two came here just to _watch_ a game but the rest of us wants to _win it_ ,” Shikamaru scolded them. “You're being loud. You'll wake everyone up, and Kakashi will come here again. Whatever it is, it can wait till the morning,” he muttered.

“Sure,” Naruto replied.

“It _can't_ ,” Sasuke protested. “Naruto, I've asked you a simple question, so just answer me yes or no,” he insisted. Shikamaru raised his eyebrow, pointed towards the doors, and tapped his foot. When his hair was let down like this, he looked like his mom, and his mom was one of the scary always pissed-off ones.

“No,” Naruto replied to Sasuke, catching a glimpse of surprise washing over his face before Shikamaru grabbed his arm, and pulled him out.

“If I hear you talking or even _moving_ again, I'll call Kakashi,” Shikamaru threatened them. “So shut up and go to sleep,” he ordered. “Sasuke, we’re _leaving_ ,” he hurried the other brunette. Sasuke didn’t say anything but Naruto heard him follow them.

“We need to talk,” Sasuke stated in a serious tone. Naruto gulped as a shiver ran through his body. He hated the sound of this _we need to talk_ , even the words alone were scary but then it was _Sasuke_ saying them, and his voice sounded like he meant business, and so Naruto felt like he never wanted to talk to Sasuke again. Because if Sasuke wasn't freaking out about Naruto being gay for him then he was freaking for some undisclosed reason and _now_ he was going to flip out again.

“Tomorrow,” Naruto promised his friend, falsely cheery and very well aware of the fact that they wouldn't have a chance to talk tomorrow. At least not in private. And, since Sasuke _was_ a private person, they just wouldn't talk, and maybe it would all _pass_.

“ _Now_ ,” Sasuke disagreed.

“Today but after we'll get some sleep,” Shikamaru chimed in as they approached their room. “And now I swear, if I hear you talking again, you're _screwed_ ,” he whispered, opened the doors, and pushed them both in.

Naruto practically jumped towards his bunk, and hid himself under his cover. He heard a familiar angry huff, and then, _finally_ , it seemed like Sasuke gave up and climbed on his bunk. He was almost done releasing a relieved sigh when his phone beeped. Naruto stared at the tiny green led as if it could destroy the whole world.

“At least mute your phones,” Shikamaru complained. “Seriously, are you incapable of spending time with other people? What is wrong with you?”

Neither Naruto nor Sasuke replied. Naruto reached for his cell, and muted it without unlocking it. Then it vibrated again. The boy breathed out and touched his screen. He saw the last message Sasuke's sent him.

_I know you're not sleeping so answer me_

Well, he was screwed, Sasuke was clearly bent on talking right now, this instant. Naruto slid his phone open, closed his eyes, and went into the messages. He counted to ten, as if he was about to dive in a freezing cold water for longer than it was humanly possible, and looked at his screen.

_Why did you say it was a joke?_

Naruto stared at the text, wondering what exactly Sasuke wanted to gain by asking the question.

_Y do u ask?_

Naruto heard Sasuke groan, and soon his phone vibrated again.

_Why do you think I ask??? Just answer me_

Naruto sighed, and started writing a reply but Sasuke managed to send him another one before he could send it.

_And don't beat around the bush, just answer me_

Naruto bit his bottom lip, almost drawing blood. It was confusing. This whole conversation was confusing as fuck.

_Because u stopped talking 2 me_

“What?!” Sasuke growled from above.

“Shut up,” Shikamaru scowled.

_Y r u flipping out????_

“Take a wild guess,” Sasuke hissed.

“One more word, and I'm calling Kakashi,” Shikamaru chirped in a singasong voice.

_Oi he means business so like shut up_

_I know it's me who's getting screwed if Kakashi comes but don't be a dick_ _ಠ_ ___ _ಠ_

Suddenly, Sasuke's head appeared hanging upside down. Naruto stared at it, wondering if this was his time to say goodbye to the world but Sasuke merely showed him a middle finger and disappeared again.

_What was I supposed to say?!_

_Idk maybe tell me I’m a moron or something??? ¯\\_(_ _ツ_ _)_/¯_

Naruto turned on his side, and stared at his other roommates. Everyone but Shikamaru (and Sasuke) was asleep, and Shikamaru was doing something on his phone, looking pissed off beyond belief but Naruto knew that their manager was going to snore in like ten minutes tops. Unless they annoyed him again.

_You've said it wasn’t a joke_

Naruto frowned upon reading the text.

_Y do u care??? U decided to change ur mind or what_ _ఠ_ ___ _ఠ_

Sasuke’s reply came a few seconds later. It was a miracle. He could write super fast without making any stupid typos but, at the same time, he was absolutely hopeless with phones. When he saw one of the boys from the team using his phone like a flashlight, he acted as if a phone made him a breakfast. A good one at that.

_Can't you answer even one question straight?! And no, I don't need to change my mind, you have to stop assuming things_

Naruto rubbed his temples. It was ridiculous. He had no idea what was going on anymore.

_I'm not assuming anything!!! Srsly, I'm not asking u out, I’m not trying 2 get into ur pants or whatever, I just want us 2 be friends, so take a chill pill_

_YOU'VE SAID IT WASN'T A JOKE. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MIND._

Naruto glared at Sasuke's reply. He could still remember times when Sasuke had no idea that caps lock meant shouting, so he'd write all of his texts like this. Because this way they were _easier to read_. Naruto was suspecting that Sasuke didn't have a 20/20 vision but he’s never seen him wear glasses. He saw Itachi wear them, though. Just reading glasses but still. And Sasuke's father was wearing glasses too.

_What, u don't want it 2 be a joke????_

Naruto heard Sasuke letting out a silent scream into his pillow. He waited for a reply but it came like five minutes later. If Naruto wasn’t so stressed out because of this peculiar conversation they were having, he would've gone to sleep ages ago.

_Stop screwing with me_

“I'm not,” Naruto complained under his breath. Shikamaru already looked as if he was sleeping but he still wasn’t snoring so talking was a terrible idea. Maybe it was for the better. Sasuke was already on edge, and if it wasn't texting, something unwanted might've slipped through Naruto's mouth.

_Y r u so angry????_

Naruto jerked up when he heard Sasuke move. This couldn't be good. Naruto waited for him to descent and murder him to get the Death From Above achievement but no, nothing's happened. Maybe the angle was all wrong, and there wasn't a way for Sasuke to jump on him and finish him in one go but Naruto was pretty certain that if Sasuke _could_ do it, it would be a fatality. He wondered what Sasuke's fatality would've looked like. It had to be clean but at the same time gory, and these two adjectives didn't usually go hand in hand but Naruto was pretty certain that Sasuke could actually pull it off.

_Go to sleep. We will talk tomorrow._

Well. This was awfully anticlimactic.

* * *

 

Sasuke glared at Naruto, who pretended he wasn't being glared at, and was just going on around his daily life, acting all goofy and having way more energy than he should after a sleepless night. Because it _was_ a sleepless night for the moron, he's been turning in his bed all night—well, the least two hours of morning anyway—long, and he was clearly nervous, and Sasuke couldn't stop himself from hoping that the dumbass was nervous for all the _right_ reasons.

On the other hand, it was Naruto.

He might've been acting stupid for a number of reasons Sasuke would never come up with.

“Oi, Shika,” Naruto yelled, shaking their manager awake. “Rise and shine, I thought you wanted to win a game.”

“If I was to list every reason why it'll be your fault if we lose, I'd have to miss the game,” Shikamaru complained in a groggy voice.

“Hit me,” the blonde huffed.

“You've let Sasuke get injured because you weren’t able to tell him _no_ , then you've get yourself penalized because you weren’t able to control yourself, and now because of you three of our regulars will be too tired to play at their best,” he enlisted in a monotone voice.

“See, it took you only one minute,” the dumbass chirped. “You're just being pessimistic, that's all. Have some faith,” he said and let out a nervous laugh.

“I have faith but not in you,” Shikamaru yawned.

“Then it's good that today it's not about me,” Naruto sighed in reply. “Guys, I'm counting on you, make me proud,” he shouted with renewed vigor. “Get up, Kiba,” he ordered. “There are asses that need to be kicked, remember?”

“Yes, yours and Sasuke's,” Kiba muttered. “You should get a ban on rooming together when there's more than just you two in a room,” he yawned.

“Don't be stupid,” the blonde barked. “Up, up, up, you'll rest after the game,” he added.

“But then I guess it would be twice as many people, who wouldn't be able to get their rest,” Kiba scowled. “Fuck, you're worse than Shikamaru—”

“Why, thank you,” Shikamaru chimed in.

“Stop complaining and get up,” Sasuke sighed. “I thought you wanted to prove that you're better than me.”

“I definitely win the better roommate award,” Kiba barked in reply.

“You might if you weren't snoring. We didn't sleep at all because of you, so shut up and get moving,” Sasuke ordered.

“Nah, you weren't sleeping because you couldn't stop yapping,” Shikamaru disagreed.

“Says the loudest snorer,” Naruto chuckled. “Guys, stop whining, and get ready,” he said, and with that he _left_. Sasuke was assuming that Naruto went to take a shower because he took everything with him but _normally_ Naruto would tell everyone where he was going, and would wait for the others.

“Oi,” Sasuke hissed, grabbing his shower gel, a towel, and heading towards the doors.

“And here we go again,” Shikamaru complained. Sasuke sent him an icy glare but otherwise he refused to grace the idiot with an actual response.

“Where do you think you're going?!” Sasuke yelled after the blonde, who was moving towards the bathroom at an unprecedented speed.

“Take a wild guess,” Naruto shouted back.

“We're going to talk whether you like it or not,” Sasuke muttered under his breath, catching up to the dumbass. He could feel pain in his chest area. It seemed that he still wasn't _completely_ fine.

“You're not supposed to run like this,” Naruto whined.

“Believe me, chasing you is the last thing on my to do list,” Sasuke retorted.

“Yeah, you'd much rather run away,” the dumbass yapped.

“Yesterday,” Sasuke started, ignoring Naruto’s stupid taunt, “I've asked you a question.”

“And I've answered you,” the blonde sighed as they entered the bathroom. Suddenly, he perked up. Sasuke looked around and frowned upon seeing Sai brushing his teeth by a sink. “Hey,” Naruto greeted him. Sai nodded in reply, looking bored out of his mind. He always looked as if he was bored out of his mind. “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine,” Sai answered. “I see it was _you_ , who's got the head, and not the other way around,” he added after spitting out the foam, his thin lips cracking into a nasty smile. “Don’t worry, Sasuke, I'm sure Naruto will return the favor—”

“I see that you're perfectly fine,” Naruto interrupted him with a fake grin on his face. “Good, we need you in your top form today,” he chirped, entered the room with the showers, and disappeared into the closest one.

“Or maybe he won't,” Sai shrugged his shoulders at Sasuke. “He doesn't look too enthusiastic about it, huh? I guess it's different when it's you sucking, and not getting sucked off—”

“I'm amazed that you're still capable of walking if all you can think about is cocks,” Sasuke muttered, leaving Sai alone by the sinks, and following after Naruto. He wasn’t, obviously, going to storm the stall the dumbass was in but he needed to take a shower anyways, and waiting for Naruto to finish would be just a waste of time.

Besides, Sai could be onto something. Naruto did say that he _wasn't_ joking but he’s also said that all he wanted was being friends. Naruto could, of course, be lying through his teeth hoping to save his face _or_ Naruto wasn't lying. He did ask Sasuke out, thinking it wasn't a joke but maybe later he realized he misjudged. They were close friends, very close friends. Naruto might've gotten confused, and in a spur of the moment, he said something he didn't truly mean. Later, when he had a chance to think this through, he realized that it _wasn’t_ something he wanted.

The only question was which one of these was true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fufufufu are you getting frustrated with them :'D???  
> at least this chapter is as long as it should be  
> kudos to me


	10. Chapter 10

„Just put me on the field, it can't get worse than _this_ ,” Sasuke hissed, pinching Naruto's arm.

“It’s okay,” the blonde mumbled out, quietly observing the game. He's been unusually quiet for the last half an hour or so, and Sasuke wasn't surprised. Their team was getting decimated. The team they were playing against, the Scorpions, apparently had had some bad luck, and five of their regulars didn't play in some of the previous matches but now, when they had a full squad… they were unstoppable. It was clear if they played like this from the beginning of the tournament, the Toads probably wouldn't stand a chance. “This game doesn't mean anything to us, remember? We can afford to lose it, you've said it yourself.”

“We're losing 0 to 3,” Sasuke muttered in reply. “And they still have twenty minutes to humiliate us more. Put me on the field, I'll try to turn it around—”

“You're still injured,” the blonde interrupted him in grave tone, “I'm _not_ going to risk your health for something this stupid, forget it,” he barked. “Besides, you haven't slept at all tonight, and you haven't been training for the last few weeks. If I put you on the field like _this_ , our morale would sink so low we'd never get it up. It's not worth it.”

“I'm better at my worst than some of the guys are at their best,” Sasuke retorted. “Sorry to break it out to you but we don't have a strong _team_ , we have a few strong players, and it's clearly not enough to pull us through the tournament,” he growled. “Especially if two of the said strong players are _benched_.”

“They've lost two games when they weren't playing in full squad,” Naruto hissed back. “They've lost against teams we've won. They don't have a strong team either, and today we're at our weakest so stop freaking out. If we play against them again, we’ll _win_.”

“Remember when I've said I enjoy watching football? I take it back, watching _this_ is just painful,” Sasuke sighed, leaning forward and hiding his face in hands. He still hasn't had a chance to speak to Naruto in private. What was more, Naruto didn't look like he _wanted_ to talk to Sasuke in private. He was surrounding himself with people, and made sure that they _wouldn’t_ have a chance to talk.

“Nobody likes to lose,” Naruto agreed with a heavy sigh. “But I've promised you we’ll win, so we _will_.”

“You've also promised me we were going to _talk_ but you still haven't—”

“The day isn't over yet,” Naruto interrupted him.

“Then _when_ are we going to talk?” Sasuke demanded to know. “Is there some specific hour you have in mind or—”

“ _Today_ ,” the blonde whispered. “When we will be _actually_ alone,” he added.

“Come to my place after we come back from this fucking disaster,” Sasuke offered. “My parents are coming home around 9 p.m., so you'll have _plenty_ of time to talk with me alone.”

“I doubt we’ll need plenty of time,” the dumbass grunted. “There seriously isn't anything to talk about.”

“Are you coming or not?” Sasuke questioned, ignoring Naruto’s whines.

“…sure,” the boy relented. “Shit,” he cursed, watching as the opposing team scored yet another goal. “I guess I spoke too soon when I've said we _won't_ be seeing these guys anymore,” he mumbled out.

“You _guess_?” Sasuke hissed. After the group stage was going to be over, the teams that got second place were going to play against each other to determine a winner, who was going to participate in the main tournament. It was clear that the Scorpions were the ones to do it.

“We'll have to do something about their number ten,” Naruto said, glaring at a scrawny redhead.

“And number one, and three, and seven, and—”

“Shut up,” the blonde complained. “Number ten is the one, who's orchestrating all their plays,” he pointed out.

“Naruto's right,” Shikamaru agreed in a sleepy voice. “You'll need to shut him down fast or he's going to disrupt your rhythm. But then there's also their captain,” he sighed. “He's playing really aggressively. Our defenders will have trouble with him.”

“You mean they _are_ having trouble with him,” Sasuke corrected the other brunette.

“We’ll worry about it _after_ we'll learn whom we’re facing,” Shikamaru suggested. “Maybe they'll drop out before we’ll have a chance to—”

“I wouldn't call it a _chance_ ,” Sasuke muttered.

“Where's your fighting spirit?” Naruto murmured. “I thought you _liked_ facing strong opponents,” he pointed out.

“I could play one on one with each and everyone of them and win but Udon _can't_ ,” Sasuke barked back.

“It's a team game,” Shikamaru sighed. “But if they can carry their weaker players better than you do, then I wouldn't brag about being able to win against them in one on one.”

“What do you know,” Sasuke hissed at him. “All you do is sit and—”

“Shika's working really hard,” Naruto interrupted him. “He'll figure something out, and we'll make it work,” he promised.

“Fine,” Sasuke relented.

“Sorry, Shikamaru, he’s just cranky and upset,” the dumbass grunted. “He didn’t mean what he's said.”

“Don't patronize me,” Sasuke complained.

“Someone’s got to apologize, and it’s faster if it's me,” Naruto whispered. Sasuke gave him a sideways look. Naruto apologized in his stead _a lot_. He’d say sorry to the girls, who confessed to Sasuke, and tell them that Sasuke was just _surprised_ , he'd assure their teammates that Sasuke _didn't_ hate them and that if he was yelling at them it was because Sasuke _expected great things from them_ , and it was bullshit but Sasuke never corrected him. It was easier this way. Naruto was a people pleaser, and it seemed that sucking up to random people had its merits. Usually they would perform better and be less annoying. But it wasn’t _them_ doing it, it was Naruto pretty much manipulating them into being better.

Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if Naruto was doing the same thing to him.

“I have no idea how you were able to survive in the world before you met Naruto,” Shikamaru yawned. “And your mom is _so_ nice. She must wonder where she went wrong—"

“Watch it, Shikamaru,” Naruto interrupted him in a tired voice. “Sasuke’s doing perfectly fine without me, and his mom would _never_ think like this.”

“I'm glad that all three of us can have this conversation about _me_ ,” Sasuke growled.

“You're welcome,” Shikamaru hissed back.

“Stop it, guys,” Naruto whined. “You're not angry at yourself, you're angry because we're losing, and you’re sleepy, and it's been a rough night,” he said. “The match is about to end, we’ll go grab something to eat, we'll drive home, you'll rest, and then you'll realize you regret saying all this stupid shit.”

“I seriously doubt it,” Shikamaru disagreed.

“Yeah,” Sasuke yawned in agreement.

“Stop being difficult,” Naruto complained. “The guys will need our support, you arguing won't accomplish anything.”

“They don't need support, they need to play better,” Sasuke huffed.

“You won't make them play better by making them feel bad about themselves,” Shikamaru sighed.

“It worked with Naruto,” Sasuke pointed out.

“Naruto’s a special case,” Shikamaru blurted out. “Nobody else feels like they need to prove themselves to you, you’re not this important.”

“Kiba does,” Sasuke pointed out.

“Don't be mean to him,” Naruto whined. “He's trying his best—”

“He should start to _do_ his best, not _try_.”

“Just do yourself a favor and stop talking,” Shikamaru barked at him. “Actually, it would do _us_ a favor too.”

“I'm just being _honest_ ,” Sasuke complained.

“No, you're being mean,” Shikamaru disagreed. Sasuke narrowed his eyes, observing his teammates play. Or pretend they were playing. If he was to choose, he'd never choose Toads as his team but at first it was a team that had absolutely nothing to do with Itachi, and later… Naruto was there. Naruto was able to make up for all the mishaps. “It’s not like me or Naruto are going to pat them on their backs and say they did great,” Shikamaru continued.

“They know they didn’t do great,” Naruto agreed with a sigh. “But it's okay. They're tired, we’re not playing in our regular squad, and it's clearly not our day. Yesterday you weren't expecting them to win too, and you had no idea how difficult the game was going to be.”

“Fine, whatever, I'll shut up,” Sasuke grunted and let out a massive yawn. He felt as if he was going to pass out the moment his head would touch something soft.

“I'm so sleepy,” Naruto whined. He too was already yawning.

“You have only yourself to blame for it,” Shikamaru scowled. “What's so important that you couldn’t wait until morning? Is this how all of your sleepovers look like?”

“We don't do _sleepovers_ ,” Sasuke protested.

“We kind of do,” Naruto snorted. “But no, usually we just go to sleep. You're not there to keep us awake.”

“We _don’t_ do sleepovers,” Sasuke insisted. They kind of did. It was all Naruto's fault but Sasuke's never stopped him. During the last summer, they've spent most of the nights lying on Sasuke's bed and watching random shit. Naruto just _liked_ coming and staying over. And sometimes, if he was having a rough night, he'd call Sasuke and beg him to come over. Sasuke would usually refuse because for most of the time it was during the school week, and he needed his rest, so he could stay focused but if he had the next day free… he would usually agree. He wasn’t certain _why_ because this whole enterprise was mostly annoying. He'd come to see the dumbass all jumpy, usually for some stupid reason (like that time when Naruto was hanging out with Kiba and let the other idiot persuade him into watching a horror movie about some scary pale children), and then he'd just lie next to him, and try to get as much sleep as he could. Sasuke doubted he was helping because Naruto was having nightmares anyways but maybe it was easier if there was someone, with whom the blonde could share his ridiculous, creepy dreams.

“It’s not like I _want_ to room with you,” Shikamaru scowled. “You're really troublesome—”

“ _Finally_ ,” Sasuke interrupted him as the referee blew in his whistle to signal that the match was over. They've lost 4 to 0. The last time they've lost so badly was when Sasuke was still a first-year, and Naruto still sucked.

He watched his team bow to the audience, and shake hands with the other team. He saw the look on Kiba’s face as he approached the blond guy from yesterday, who had a smug smirk on his stupid face. Sasuke looked away. Perhaps Naruto and Shikamaru were right. Nobody liked to lose. Not like _this_.

* * *

Naruto followed after Sasuke, pretty much forcing himself to move forward because talking to Sasuke was the last thing he wanted to do. This day was awful enough already, losing his best friend for a second time was _not_ how he wanted it to end.

Still, he was grateful to Sasuke, who managed to remain respectfully quiet for the remainder of the day. The brunette didn't complain, didn't taunt the others, didn't make fun of them. He even patted Kiba on the back, and said that it was going to be better. And then he stopped pressuring Naruto into talking to him _this very instant_ , so Naruto was able to at least partially fulfill his captain's duties and try to keep the team spirit alive. Not that it worked, not really, everyone looked down, and some of the guys even apologized to them for playing like _this_ , that they let something like this happen, and this was just heartbreaking.

Asuma said something about how they were playing against the Scorpions for the first time, how some of them were playing in positions they weren't used to, how they were just tired, and then he reassured the team that this match didn't mean jack shit because they already were in the quarterfinals, so they should be proud of themselves.

Kakashi didn't really say anything, he merely informed the team that they had an hour and a half to take a shower, eat something and get back on the bus.

The ride home was quiet too, nobody wanted to break the silence or maybe nobody _dared_ to break it.

And now Naruto was supposed to _talk_ with Sasuke, and he suspected that _this_ was going to be the worst part of the day.

“Are you hungry?” Sasuke questioned in a flat voice as he unlocked the doors to his house. He had a keychain Naruto had given him _months_ ago. It was a little orange toad, and back in the days it had red stripes on its back but now the design was all rubbed off, and the keychain looked shitty. Naruto had given it to Sasuke as a joke because they were having a talk about their team name, and how pathetic it was, and it was supposed to be _ironic_. But Sasuke still didn't throw the toad away. Maybe he was just being lazy and didn't care enough. Or maybe he actually liked it. Naruto had no way of knowing which one of these it was.

“No, thanks,” he mumbled out in reply. Normally, he would've been hungry but he was way too nervous to eat anything.

“Okay,” Sasuke breathed out, entering the empty house. Sometimes, Sasuke’s house felt suffocating. There were lots of pictures on the walls but these weren't your normal everyday pictures like from some birthdays or trips, or from amusement park, or whatever, no, it was photos of people winning something, graduating or receiving awards. As if there was nothing more to life. Sometimes Naruto wondered if Sasuke’s family even was taking normal photos or if these were reserved only for when someone was successful. Most of the photos were of Itachi. There were at least six Itachis with a cup, three with medals, and then there was also Itachi with his U16 and U18 team, and when Naruto had seen them for the first time he was actually impressed but then he realized that Itachi wasn’t even smiling on any of them. As if all of these achievements weren't making him happy, as if it was merely a duty. “Want something to drink?”

“Yeah,” Naruto sighed. It was so quiet in there. He watched Sasuke pour them two glasses of juice, and went after him as he climbed the stairs, opened the doors to his room, put the glasses on his desk after taking a big gulp from one of them, and plopped on the bed, his legs dangling from the side.

“So?” Sasuke inquired, massaging his temples.

“So what?” Naruto asked, lying next to the brunette. The bed felt so soft. And suddenly the silence stopped feeling awful, and started to be welcome. The blonde closed his eyes, only now realizing how tired he was.

“What _what_?” Sasuke snarled. “You know _what_.”

“What's the point?” Naruto complained. “Seriously, why does it even matter? I've already told you it wasn't a joke, why is it so important?”

“It matters if it _still_ isn't a joke,” Sasuke snapped at him. Naruto shook his head in defeat. It was pointless. It was so, so, _so_ pointless.

“Why?” Naruto sighed.

“Just answer,” Sasuke muttered.

“Sasuke,” the blonde whined, “I'm sorry I've asked you out, I shouldn't have done it,” he apologized. “It won't happen again.”

Sasuke didn’t reply to that for the next few minutes, and when he finally spoke, it sounded as if he had to fight his tongue to form coherent words. “It doesn't answer my question.”

“What answer do you want? That it was a moment of madness?” Naruto barked. “It _was_ ,” he admitted. “But it also _wasn't_ ,” he added after a longer pause during which Sasuke didn't say a word. To be honest, it sounded as if he stopped breathing altogether. “Don't worry about it, I just want to be friends with you, and I _will_ get over this, so just let me forget—”

“Don’t,” Sasuke blurted out.

“ _What_?” Naruto asked. He had absolutely _no_ idea what was even going on anymore. Sasuke replied but if Naruto wasn’t actively listening to him, he wouldn't even notice that Sasuke's said anything, and it was still too quiet to recognize the words. “What?” Naruto repeated, unable to hide the frustration he was feeling.

“Don't get over this,” Sasuke whispered. 

“…why?” Naruto mumbled out, and when he heard himself, he barely recognized his own voice.

“Because you don't have to get over it,” Sasuke replied, sounding positively dead.

“What?” Naruto asked, absolutely dumbfounded. “Is this you trying to be nice or is this you showing your sadistic side? Like, seriously, can you just be straight with me just this once?!”

“You're a dumbass,” Sasuke sighed, removing his hands from his face and letting them fall on the bed. Naruto jerked up when Sasuke's fingers touched his. Naruto’s first instinct was to pull away because it was an _accident_ , it had to be an accident but then he realized that Sasuke not only didn't move away himself but his fingers actually brushed against Naruto’s, and then rested in the palm of the blonde's hand.

Naruto didn't dare to say anything or move, he barely dared to _breathe_. He still couldn't believe that it was actually happening, he could swear that his heart was already climbing up through his throat, and was about to jump out of his mouth and leave his body forever. Because, if his senses were not lying to him, Sasuke was touching him, and it wasn't one of the accidental touches, and it also wasn't one of these gestures that meant nothing, this was… maybe two square inches of their bodies were touching but it was still leaving Naruto feeling numb. It had to mean _something_ but he was way too scared to ask what it was.

So he kept quiet, and so did Sasuke. Naruto sucked in a shaky breath, forcing himself to calm down because he was certain that if it turned out that this _was_ an accident or Sasuke was just testing him for whatever reason, his heart would break in half. He wanted it to stop, he couldn't take it anymore. His hand fluttered, ready to escape.

“Don't move,” Sasuke whispered, his voice raspy and pleading. Naruto closed his eyes, forcing himself to stay still. He was almost sick from how nervous he was. He knew he should be _happy_ , perhaps, maybe, he had no idea but he knew that if Sasuke was going to take it away from him, he'd crumble under the pressure.

“So does it—”

“Not now,” Sasuke complained.

“You can't just keep me on edge,” Naruto sighed.

“I've already told you everything,” Sasuke breathed out.

“You've told me _nothing_ ,” Naruto hissed. “You've just called me an idiot, and usually I'm pretty damn good at reading between the lines because you just _can't_ talk like a normal person, and I got used to all this sphinx wannabe shit but I think I deserve some actual answers.”

“I've told you that you don't have to get over anything, it says plenty already,” Sasuke growled back.

“I don't know, when I've asked you out, you stopped talking to me, so forgive me if I have no idea how to react to you _suddenly_ —”

“I've stopped talking to you because you've said you asked me out as a joke—”

“No, you've stopped talking _before_ ,” Naruto interrupted him. “You didn't say a word for like three hours—”

“Because there was nothing more to say, that was a _complete_ _conversation_ ,” Sasuke snapped. Naruto turned his head to glare at the stupid bastard. Then he grabbed a pillow lying next to his other side, and swatted the jerk's dumb face with it. “What?!” Sasuke grunted through a thick layer of feathers. Naruto sat up and moved the pillow away from the other boy’s face just to find him glaring daggers at him. He sighed, put the pillow back on Sasuke’s face, and pressed his lips somewhere around the spot where Sasuke's should be. Satisfied when he heard the boy stop breathing, he plopped back on the bed, careful to make sure that their hands were still touching. “What was that?” Sasuke demanded to know, shaking the pillow off his head.

“A _complete conversation_ , jackass,” Naruto replied, finally allowing himself to smile, not caring whether he was making sense or not.

“It doesn't make any sense,” Sasuke informed him.

“Shh, no need to talk, it was a complete conversation,” Naruto snorted, his fingers hooking around Sasuke’s. Alright, it wasn't the worst day ever. It might've been the best one so far though.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my word files for this fic are entitled soccer boys plus number because the real title is like super boring :'D
> 
> also
> 
> does it count as a kiss?
> 
> EDIT: uh, can you see this chapter? And did you get a notification for it if you have this story subscribed? Because it doesn't appear anywhere, and I'm kind of worried :P


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :'D

Sasuke felt as if he was hit over the head with some kind of ice hammer. He violently jerked to the side, opening his eyes, and half expecting to see everyone he knew and loved  _dead_. But no, if he correctly recognized the shapes in the darkness, it was just Naruto. Naruto, who was currently panting, visibly terrified by something. And Sasuke had no idea why Naruto even was there, the last thing he remembered was closing his eyes for just a minute, so he could rest them after that tiring day, and that tiring talk with Naruto, and… Naruto's hand, hot and sweaty, was squeezing Sasuke's for dear life, as if Naruto was to cease existing if he let go.

“What?” Sasuke scoffed at him in a half voice. He had no idea what hour it was but it was dark, so it was probably still night. “What are you doing here?”

“I was pregnant with Asuma's child,” the blonde confessed to him in a terrified whisper. “My belly was  _huge_ , and—”

“I'm pretty certain you can't get pregnant,” Sasuke reminded the other boy and yawned. “You'd need a womb for that, and I believe you don’t have one.”

“You don't understand,” Naruto scowled.

“I think I do,” Sasuke sighed. “You ate something. Again.”

“Your mom offered,” the blonde whined. “I can't say  _no_  to your mom, it would've been rude. And now I'm pregnant with—”

“You're  _not_ ,” Sasuke hissed. “Stop being stupid or you'll give me nightmares too. Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Because you were sleeping?” Naruto muttered as if he was making any sense.

“How else could you wake me up if I  _wasn't_  sleeping?” Sasuke calmly questioned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “What are you even doing here? Your parents know where you are?”

“Shit, you’re right,” the moron realized, suddenly sitting up. He still didn't let go of Sasuke's hand. It felt kind of disgusting and awkward but Sasuke welcomed it anyways. He quietly observed as the blonde launched his cellphone to check for hour. “It's three a.m.,” he wailed.

“Then my mom's probably already texted yours and told her you're staying the night here. Chill out,” Sasuke ordered him.

“You think?” Naruto mumbled out.

“Otherwise you would’ve had like fifty missed calls,” Sasuke pointed out, rubbing his eyes with his other hand.

“Fuck, Sasuke, I could feel it  _kick_ ,” Naruto whispered. “From the  _inside_ —”

“If you hurry up, it might take Udon's spot on the team,” Sasuke snorted.

“I'm  _serious_ ,” Naruto complained, carefully patting his stomach.

“Looks pretty flat to me,” Sasuke yawned.

“And we were playing finals, and I was running around the court with that huge belly,” Naruto continued his story, ignoring Sasuke's undignified snort, “and then my waters broke, and suddenly Sai was my doctor?!”

“It's  _so_  dumb,” Sasuke chuckled. He felt way more relaxed than just a few hours ago. As if all of the tension left his body, leaving him pleasantly limp.

“And he wanted me to give birth in the middle of the game? And, like, you were super annoyed at me because I had to lie down, and Sai was telling me to  _push_ , and Konohamaru was doing this exaggerated breathing thing?!”

“I promise that if you'll ever go into labor while we’re in the middle of the game, I won't get annoyed,” Sasuke said, shaking his head in disbelief. Still, he preferred this type of Naruto’s nightmares to the recurring ones. Naruto often dreamed about being impaled with a number of metal rods and being unable to move. He'd also dream about his skin melting off. About having his limbs blasted off. He also liked to dream about Sasuke dying. These dreams were making Naruto particularly annoying because of how distressed and clingy they made him. And therefore giving birth in a middle of the game sounded delightfully silly and harmless.

“You totally would get annoyed,” the dumbass complained.

“I probably would,” Sasuke admitted with a smile lingering on his lips. “Did we win that game?”

“I have no idea, I woke up when Konohamaru said he could see the head,” Naruto huffed at him. “Shit, it was terrible.”

“It does sound horrifying,” Sasuke whispered in reply. “How did you know it was Asuma’s?”

“I have no idea, I just  _did_ , and it was making perfect sense back then,” Naruto whined. “I won't be able to look him in the eyes when I see him again.”

“He doesn't know how messed up you are,” Sasuke pointed out in a soft voice.

“You do,” Naruto breathed out.

“I won't tell him,” Sasuke promised, trying to ignore how the fact, that Naruto sounded content about Sasuke knowing how messed up he was, was making Sasuke feel pleasantly warm. Because whatever  _this_  was, it seemed so extremely fragile after all these days they were ignoring each other that Sasuke was terrified it would break. And he wasn't too good at fixing stuff, it was Naruto's domain.

“He'll see right through me,” Naruto sighed. “I swear, he's just going to come up to me, and offer me child support,” he scowled.

“Good, maybe then you can pay up Hinata,” Sasuke replied. Naruto swatted him on the head. “It's too early for this,” Sasuke complained, massaging his scalp.

“I've already tried to pay Hinata back,” the blonde confessed in a tired voice. “She didn't want my money. She's said it was a pleasure and asked me out  _again_ —”

“What?” Sasuke interrupted him, feeling ridiculously and inexplicably upset.

“And this time she said she wanted to hang out with  _just me_ ,” Naruto continued. Sasuke sent the other boy a sideways look. He wished the dumbass went straight to the point and said if he  _agreed_. Because this was the only thing he cared about. It was possible that Naruto had agreed. He wasn't too good with refusing if he thought he had no reason to refuse. “Shit, imagine if Kiba found out, it would break his heart in half.”

“…I guess,” Sasuke agreed. He wondered if asking whether Naruto had given Kiba a reason to be brokenhearted would be out of place. Perhaps yes? It wasn’t like they came into any kind of understanding when it came to the nature of their relationship. They just... Sasuke had no idea what exactly they've done and what they were. But it was far less definite than what he wanted.

“So don't tell him,” Naruto pleaded.

“When are you going to see her?” Sasuke finally inquired. He didn't care about Kiba's love life. He seriously doubted that Hinata and him would ever get together because they were clearly mismatched, because Hinata was way too quiet, and Kiba was too much like Naruto, and—

No, he was nothing like Naruto. Or maybe he was just like a caricature of Naruto with all of his unfounded confidence. Besides, Naruto  _knew_  when to stop. Kiba didn't. He was annoyance in its purest form.

“Wow, do you seriously think I’d go out with her?” Naruto hissed. “It would've been a dick move, like, now I know she likes me, and Kiba likes her, and, like, she's alright but I don’t see her  _this_  way so giving her false hope would've been just awful,” he lectured. “Besides, right now it would've been… uh,” he stuttered, and his grip on Sasuke's hand suddenly weakened. “It’s like… well, I had no idea about it  _before_  but… it's not like I would go out with her now even if I had agreed to it,” he whispered, sounding utterly embarrassed. “Because we  _are_  on the same page, yes?”

“I think,” Sasuke carefully agreed. He wished Naruto stopped being so cryptic and just said exactly what was on his mind.

“Are we telling the others?”

“Telling them what?” Sasuke inquired.

“I have no idea,” the dumbass wailed. “Is there a label you want to put on us or… help me out, bastard, it can't be just me saying stuff and you reacting to them, it's nerve-racking,” he whined.

Sasuke let out a loud sigh. It was just as nerve-racking for him. “You're better at talking,” he pointed out.

“Oh for fuck's sake, you're always  _so_  blunt, and you have  _no_  problems with telling people you  _don’t_  like them, so why can't you tell them you  _do_ like them?” Naruto complained.

“Because when I  _don't_  like someone, I don't care about what they think of me,” Sasuke barked in reply.

“So you  _care_  about what I think of you?” Naruto asked. Sasuke glared at him.

“No,” he snarled.

“You're lying,” the dumbass yapped.

“Yes,” Sasuke admitted, freeing his hand, and pinching the bridge of his nose with it.

“This is just some basic communication skills, we can't fail at something  _this_  stupid,” Naruto grumbled. “I'm gonna ask Sakura for help—”

“What?” Sasuke interrupted him. “Why does  _she_  have to get involved?”

“Do you have any better ideas or are we resigning each other to hoping we're correctly guessing our intentions?” Naruto growled at him.

“Can't you just ask me a yes or no question?” Sasuke hissed.

“I did it just a few seconds ago, and you  _lied_ ,” the blonde scoffed.

“But you know when I’m lying,” Sasuke pointed out.

“It's a terrible idea,” Naruto decided. “Why don't  _you_  ask me a yes or no question?”

Sasuke sent the other boy an angry stare. Asking questions kind of implied his own answers to them. Because he wouldn't ask about something he wasn't interested in, yes? He didn't want to freak Naruto out. The boy’s only asked him out on a date but that was  _weeks_  ago, so maybe it wasn't still valid. Naruto wasn’t too good with planning, so it was possible that he'd suddenly decided he'd give  _this_  a go without caring if their friendship would suffer because of it, he was impulsive, so—

“I'm  _this_  close to making us do one of those stupid internet tests to check if we're in—,” Naruto suddenly paused. “Interested in the same thing,” he concluded with a heavy sigh.

“I'm not doing anything this stupid,” Sasuke protested.

“You're either telling me what you want from me, doing the test or I'm calling Sakura,” the blonde threatened.

“It's three a.m.,” Sasuke reminded the other boy.

“I don't care, she'll forgive me,” Naruto growled. “Eventually,” he added, sounding way less confident.

“And what do you want to ask her about?”

“Some tips,” the boy mumbled out. “She's good at  _this_ , right?”

“What do you mean by  _this_?”

“What do you think I mean by—”

Sasuke let out a frustrated groan, and covered Naruto's stupid mouth with his hand, muffling whatever else was supposed to come afterwards. “Are we together?” he growled. Naruto started talking again but Sasuke pressed his hand even harder, realizing what he's just said and that he wasn't exactly ready to hear the answer. He jerked up when Naruto peeled the hand away from his lips.

“I  _hope_ ,” the dumbass grunted. “Also, your hand tastes disgusting, it's all salty—”

“It's  _your_  sweat,” Sasuke barked at the idiot. 

"It's still disgusting," Naruto decided. "So?"

"So what?"

"I've said I  _hope_ , and what are  _you_  saying?" Naruto asked.

"Same," Sasuke grunted. He heard the dumbass letting out a mute scream. Well, not exactly mute. A very quiet scream. It sounded like something out of a horror movie.

"So we're together, yes?" the blonde inquired after a longer while, which Sasuke's spent on contemplating his life and life choices so far. Maybe Itachi's been right all along. He could've went to the same high school Itachi had been in. Then he probably would've been already scouted, his future would've been sure and decided, he wouldn't have to deal with Kiba, Sai, Konohamaru and Shikamaru, and there wouldn't be any Naruto—

Naruto, who had way too much influence over him. Naruto's had way too much influence over everyone he's came in contact with. And Sasuke wasn't immune. If anything, he was particularly weak when it came to Naruto.

"Are we together?" Naruto repeated his question, lying on his side, and calmly staring at Sasuke, his head resting in his hand. Sasuke breathed in. There was just one possible answer.

"Yes," he replied, feeling as if the word weighed a ton, and came falling down on his chest, crushing his ribs again. His breath hitched when Naruto rested his head on Sasuke's shoulder.

"It's okay with you, right?" the blonde asked, his words warm and soft. It was the first time ever when he's asked whether he was allowed to touch Sasuke. It didn't make much sense, so Sasuke snorted at the question. "I'm trying to be considerate," Naruto complained. "Your social skills suck," he whined.

"It's not like yours are any better," Sasuke retorted, knowing he wasn't exactly right because Naruto's  _were_  slightly better.

"None of it would've happened if it wasn't for me," Naruto pointed out, sounding way too full of himself.

"Not true," Sasuke disagreed. " _I_ wanted to talk to  _you,_  not the other way around. If it wasn’t for me, we'd never—”

“Touché,” Naruto relented. “So what happens now?”

“We can watch a movie, I guess. I'm not too sleepy, and you're going to wake up in half an hour screaming anyways,” Sasuke offered.

“ _No_ , I mean… what now? Do we tell anyone?”

“Why not,” Sasuke sighed. He wasn’t too keen to find out how well it was going to turn out.

* * *

 

“Yeah,  _right_ ,” Kiba scoffed at Naruto. The blonde glared at the boy. For someone, who had claimed that Sasuke and he should get together, Kiba was awfully sceptic after hearing that it's actually happened. “Are you seriously so boring that you couldn't come up with anything else?”

“It's true,” Naruto insisted. Unfortunately, Sasuke wasn’t there yet because Sasuke was at his doctor appointment, and Naruto believed that it would've been better if everyone knew before Sasuke would come because then he'd spare the stupid bastard having to watch the initial disbelief and shock, however everyone but Konohamaru looked  _bored_. It was only Monday, and so far  _nobody_  knew. Because informing their parents would've been too much of a hassle right now, or this is what Sasuke claimed, and Naruto just went with it.

“It can't be,” Konohamaru protested. “Sasuke  _hates_ you.”

“He  _doesn't_  hate me,” Naruto wailed. “Why would you even say this?!”

“He’s said he hates you  _so_  many times,” Konohamaru blurted out. “And he's not very nice to you, so why… did he make you do it?!”

“ _No_ ,” Naruto sighed, rubbing his face with straightened fingers.

“They’re probably just tired of your stupid jokes, guys,” Shikamaru chimed in. “And girls are coming with us for the next game, so I guess this is Sasuke's way of keeping them away.”

“He's weird,” Kiba pondered. “You can just tell us to stop joking,” he lectured, acting as if they  _haven't_  told him to stop countless times, “pretending that you're dating is  _sick_. Besides, I bet it's not as much of a joke to him as it is to you, and yes, he is a stupid jerk, but sometimes you've got to save him from himself. You're giving him false hope.”

“I am  _not_ ,” Naruto yelled. “I thought you'd be  _happy_  for us—”

“Why would I be happy about something that concerns just the two of you?” Sai questioned. “I seriously don't care either way.”

“ _Thank you_ , Sai, that's sweet of you,” Naruto barked at the obnoxious boy.

“If it's  _so_ real, then I'm sure you'll have no problems with kissing him when he comes,” Kiba taunted. Naruto glared at him. They haven't  _kissed_  yet, not really, there was just this pillow thing that neither of them dared to mention. Initiating physical contact with Sasuke wasn't  _this_  easy. Even getting him to let Naruto sleep on his lap was a long process. Because at first it was just their legs touching, then Naruto’s head ended up on Sasuke's shoulder, and then, slowly, gradually, it found its place on his thighs. But it took them  _months_. And back then it didn't mean anything, it was just Naruto searching for a comfy spot. And shit, even getting Sasuke used to having someone  _sit_  next to him was a success. 

“Does it mean he'll be getting even  _more_  preferential treatment now?” Suigetsu chortled.

“He's  _not_  getting any preferential treatment,” Naruto whined.

“Oh?” Sai murmured, suddenly sounding interested, “he got injured but he's coming back as a regular, no? Even though he's  _not_  in his best form. You’re not even going to consider leaving Suigetsu as a regular instead,” he chuckled. Naruto stared at him, feeling his cheeks heat up. Sai was absolutely right. He didn't even give it a second thought, he just knew that Sasuke was coming back. It wouldn't be the same for the rest, they would have to prove that they were still the best choice—

“Oi, it's  _Sasuke_ ,” Suigetsu barked. “He's good, we  _all_ know that he's good.”

“Then it shouldn't be a problem to see if he's still  _so_ _good_ ,” Sai chirped.

“Sai's right,” Kiba agreed. “We can't afford to pull a deadweight  _now_  just because our  _captain_ is,” he paused, making quotation marks with his fingers, “dating the said deadweight.”

“Sasuke's not a deadweight,” Naruto protested and breathed in, feeling himself panic. He’s  _promised_  Sasuke he was coming back. He's told him he was coming back, he couldn't just go back on his word like this but he's never considered just how unfair it all was. But he couldn't just go and tell Sasuke that he's suddenly changed his mind because now Sasuke had to  _prove himself_.

“Yeah, guys,  _thanks_  but I'm really okay with Sasuke taking back his old spot,” Suigetsu blabbered. “I mean, he'd be better than me even if he broke both of his legs—”

“Don't sell yourself short, you're good too,” Sai interrupted him. Naruto sent the boy an angry stare. Yes, Sai did bring up some valid points but Naruto was pretty certain that all he really cared about was sowing chaos because he was  _bored_. Unfortunately, despite the fact that Sai's intentions were probably bad, he was right. And Naruto  _still_  had no idea what he should do or say, so he was just blankly staring at the rest of the team, shamefully grateful to Suigetsu for standing up for Sasuke because if it was  _Naruto_  doing it, and gods knew Naruto  _wanted_  to do it, it would've looked  _terrible_. He started to regret being the captain, he was clearly not cut out for the position.

“Do you guys seriously want to change our entire strategy days before the quarterfinals?” Naruto questioned.

“You've had no problems with changing it when Sasuke wasn’t talking to you,” Sai pointed out. “We’re flexible, we’ll adapt.  _Your_  words.”

“Right,” Naruto admitted. “Okay, we'll… we'll give it a go,” he sighed. For fuck's sake, it was  _Sasuke_  they were talking about. There was no way that Sasuke would become a  _deadweight_. No, there was no reason to doubt that Sasuke would be better than the rest. He himself said that he was better at his worst than some of the guys were at their best, so… It was going to be okay. Surely. No reasons to worry.

“If Sasuke needs to prove he deserves his spot, then everyone else should do it too,” Suigetsu said with a nasty smile. “Since we're  _so_  flexible that we’re considering throwing out one of our best players because of a little hiccup,” he continued. “Guys, we've lost when Sasuke wasn't there.”

“That's because  _Naruto_ wasn’t there,” Konohamaru disagreed.

“Watch it, you'd be one of the first ones to get replaced if we're doing this whole  _prove your worth_  shit,” Suigetsu barked at the poor kid. “I might take  _your_  place,” he announced with a nasty grin.

“Guys, calm down,” Naruto pleaded. “We're a  _team_. Yes, it's great to be a part of the regular squad but we need our reserve players to be in their best form too. Preferably in a better form than the other team's regulars,” he said. “There’s no reason to fight over it,” he added. He knew there  _was_  a reason to fight over it. Especially for the third years. “If you think the only reason Sasuke's coming back is because we're dating, you’re stupid idiots but I'm pretty certain Sasuke can prove you wrong,” he concluded, feeling like a scam. Because if Sai hasn’t brought up the subject, Naruto would've accepted Sasuke on the team even if he wasn't able to kick the ball straight. Really, Naruto would've just learned how to make the best out of Sasuke’s shitty passes and be done with it. Because at this point it was more important to him to play with Sasuke than to just win. Winning was a nice, and a very desired bonus, and it was what Sasuke wanted, so—

“I think it's just a waste of time,” Suigetsu yawned. “All of you would've accepted Sasuke back with open arms, so—”

“It's about the principle,” Sai interrupted him. “I wonder how pissed off he's going to be when—”

“Why am I going to be pissed off?” Sasuke muttered immediately after entering the locker room. Naruto sent him a sheepish smile.

“Sai thinks you're going to suck,” Suigetsu informed the boy.

“I'm not sucking anything,” Sasuke hissed, glaring at the rest of the boys, who looked absolutely dumbfounded for like half a minute.

“It's not a good sign, Naruto,” Sai chirped.

“They mean… on the field,” Naruto mumbled out, refusing to look anyone in the eye. When he finally turned his head to look at… his boyfriend, he supposed that Sasuke was now his  _boyfriend_ , Sasuke was just blinking, his face looking like an expressionless death mask. Except for his cheeks, which got violently red. He looked kind of like that scary puppet from the Saw franchise. “So if we could play a mock match, and, like, you'd show them that, uh, everything's still fine, then—”

“Sure,” Sasuke mumbled out.

“Wait, are you two  _actually_  dating or is this you screwing with us?” Kiba asked, scratching the back of his head.

“Yes,” Sasuke answered, sounding just as dead as before.

“Yes to  _what_?!” Kiba demanded to know.

“Yes to  _we’re dating_ you idiot,” Naruto blurted out.

“You seriously suck at it then,” Shikamaru yawned.

“Thank you for your input, it's  _really_  helpful,” the blonde yapped.

“Hey, it's not  _my_  fault,” Shikamaru whined. “But the mock match is a good idea. This way nobody will doubt that Sasuke earned his spot thanks to his skills on the field, and not the ones in the not-sucking department,” he snorted.

“Shut up,” Naruto pleaded. “You're supposed to be the smart one, so act your part—”

“Boys, how much longer do I have to wait for you?” Asuma asked, peeking into the room.

“Three more minutes,” Naruto promised, looking everywhere but at his coach. Asuma nodded, left, and closed the doors. “Sasuke, are you okay to train today or—”

“I'm good,” Sasuke interrupted him. “I just need to change. We can play this mock match today.”

“Wait, no, that would've been unfair,” Naruto protested. “It's your first training in three weeks, so—”

“Wow, I'm starting to think that the perks of dating the captain outweigh the cons,” Sai murmured. “How much easier are you going to make it to him?”

“You're just being an ass, Sai,” Naruto sighed. “Just let him see if everything is really okay—”

“Don't doubt me,” Sasuke complained.

“I'm  _not_  doubting you but forcing you to play at your best after three weeks of barely being able to walk is not the right way to—”

“I  _don't_  need to play at my best,” Sasuke hissed, changing his shirt as if he planned to strangle himself with it.

“Are you for real?!” Kiba scowled. “Get your head out of your ass and—”

“Shut up,  _all_  of you,” Naruto barked. “We're  _not_  playing the mock match today, at least not to judge anyone on how they play, so today just take it easy, I don't want any of you to get injured for some stupid reason,” he snapped. “Sasuke, you were allowed to start running like  _twenty_   _minutes_  ago, so you're going to take it slow today,” he ordered. “If I see  _any_  of you showing off today, I'm pulling  _all_ of you off the field and making you train dribbling for two hours straight.”

“Club activities are fun,” Sai chirped.

“Shut up, Sai” Shino sighed, startling everyone in the room. It was  _way_ too easy to forget he was there.

“Exactly, taking it out on Sasuke just because you've let the other team score four times in the last game is lame,” Haku said.

“And bringing it up when you weren't able to score even once is lame too,” Sai replied with a smile. “Hun, two can play this game,” he added, clearly enjoying making the younger boy blush in embarrassment.

“Just go on the field,” Naruto muttered. He watched everyone but Sasuke leave the room, and got up to follow after them but Sasuke pulled him back on the bench. “Sorry, they are… I don’t know what got into them,” he whispered. “And sorry about this whole  _earning_ the spot, I know you'll make it—”

“I don't mind it,” Sasuke interrupted him. “If Suigetsu wants it so much, he’s up for a whole lot of disappointment—”

“It's not Suigetsu,” Naruto informed the other boy. “He actually stood up for you, it was pretty sweet of him,” he said and let out a sad chuckle. “It's just Sai being an ass. He claims you're getting preferential treatment but I bet he just wants to argue for the sake of arguing,” he sighed. “If I wasn’t the captain, you wouldn't be getting all this shit—"

“I can deal with it,” Sasuke assured him. Naruto smiled at the other boy, and placed his hand on Sasuke’s. Being alone with him was far more soothing than he would've ever anticipated. He wondered if it was the same for Sasuke, if this was why the boy wanted him to stay. And then they spoke at the same time. “What did they say?”

 “Can I kiss you?”

“What?”

“What?” Naruto mumbled out, immediately regretting having asked the question. Sasuke stared at him for the longest time, a completely unreadable expression on his face.

“I guess,” the boy eventually rasped.

“They didn’t believe me,” Naruto replied to Sasuke’s previous question, ignoring that kind of  _yes_  he's just heard because he had no idea what to do with it. He's never kissed anybody. And this wasn’t just anybody, this was  _Sasuke_. And they were in a stinky locker room, and—

“Are you going to do it or not?” Sasuke asked. Normally, whenever he was ending his sentences with  _or not_ , he'd be wearing that smug smirk on his face but today it was completely devoid of smugness. It looked exactly how Naruto felt. Lost. Absolutely and completely out of his depth.

“I… don't know,” he admitted. “Do you want me to do it?”

“Three minutes are up,” Asuma yelled before throwing the doors open. Naruto yelped in panic, practically jumping up to the standing position and letting go of Sasuke's hand in the process. “Boys, we don't have all day. You're the seniors here, you should be the example to the younger students. Especially  _you_ , Naruto, as the team captain, you should—”

“I'm sorry, I'm coming,” he mumbled out.

“We’ll talk after the training,” Sasuke decided, completely ignoring Asuma’s complaints. “And  _yes_ ,” he added before standing up and leaving the locker room with a completely dumbfounded Naruto in it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :Y


	12. Chapter 12

Sometimes Naruto felt as if he wasn't a team captain but rather a kindergarten teacher. He had to constantly keep everyone out of trouble, and they were all acting like a bunch of unruly spoiled brats. Sasuke included. Because whenever Sasuke believed nobody was looking, he would grab his side, and give it a little rub. So he was _still_ in pain. Of course he was. No matter what Sasuke wanted everyone to think, the injury _was_ a serious one. Naruto breathed in, readying himself for a complete flip out, and ran up to Sasuke.

“Take five,” he ordered. Sasuke glared at him as if it was absolutely unthinkable, the _worst possible thing_ , and Naruto was not just _a_ traitor but _the_ traitor. “It _hurts_ you, and it _shouldn't_ ,” the blonde sighed.

“I can take it,” Sasuke hissed at him.

“But you _don't have to_ take it, it's just a training, we still have two more weeks before the next game so—”

“You're freaking out again,” Sasuke complained. “I've told you who's in charge of taking me off the field, and you know it's not you. And this,” he paused, making a gesture with his hand, as if it was making anything easier to understand, "is the reason why. I'm fine, and you're just being paranoid.”

“I'm worried, and I have every reason to be worried,” Naruto disagreed. Asuma wasn't even _there_ , he left the gym a few minutes ago with a cellphone in his hand. Sasuke merely shook his head, and ran after the ball, scoring a goal from the halfway line, as if out of spite.

“You suck as a goalie,” he yelled at one of the first-years. “This shit had no right to score—”

“Then why were you trying to score?” Kiba asked him with a loud snort. “What, we’re not worthy of your killer passes?”

Naruto glared at the two. He considered making Sasuke play as a goalie for today but knowing Sasuke, he wasn’t going to think twice before receiving the ball with his chest. Sasuke was stupid. Seriously stupid. It seemed that Kiba was once again right about him. Someone needed to save Sasuke from himself.

“He's just showing off,” Suigetsu laughed, leaning forward to catch his breath. “You're scary, you’re already giving me a run for my money,” he panted.

“Let's take a break,” Naruto suggested. Luckily for him, everyone but Sasuke looked happy about his proposition. The blonde gestured the players to form a circle, and told them to stretch their limbs. Stretching after a workout was a crucial step nobody liked. Suddenly, the doors to the gym creaked open.

“Boys, we're wrapping it up earlier today,” Asuma said after approaching them. Naruto sent him a questioning look. They should have at least one more hour before they had to leave the court. He was going to the cram school later, and it was all scheduled perfectly so he wouldn’t have to wait between his extracurriculars. He had just enough time to take a shower and eat something. It was cold outside, and if he had to wait out there in the cold for an hour… well, it wasn't going to be pleasant. “Apparently, my wife went into labor,” the coach announced, looking exceptionally proud of himself.

“What,” Naruto mumbled out, suddenly remembering the yesterday's nightmare. Asuma nodded, sending them a cheeky grin as some of the boys congratulated him. Naruto breathed in, trying to calm himself down. Alright, he _knew_ Asuma’s wife was pregnant, and she did look like she was super pregnant but it was still freaking him out quite a bit. Was he some kind of psychic? Or maybe his psyche was trying to tell him that he envied Asuma's wife. Well. He did compare himself to a kindergarten teacher just five minutes ago. Maybe his maternal instincts kicked in a little bit too hard.

“Get up, boys, I'm not missing the birth of my daughter because you're feeling lazy,” the coach hurried them.

“You can leave already, I'll lock everything up,” Shikamaru offered in a tired voice, as if he was already regretting it.

“I'm screwed if you hurt yourself,” Asuma sighed, rubbing the back of his head. Well, on Mondays Kakashi was absent, and the boys were neither the smartest nor the most responsible bunch Naruto's ever met. They were perfectly capable of hurting themselves for some stupid reason. Hell, Naruto himself was like this too. “Just hurry up, and we'll be good.”

“Sure,” Naruto mumbled out, gesturing the team to stand up, and catching Sasuke’s bewildered stare. Sasuke probably had no idea that Kurenai was pregnant. Asuma wasn't exactly a sharing kind of person, but he talked with Shikamaru _a lot_ , and Shikamaru was talking with Naruto a lot, and Naruto was telling Sasuke only the bits he thought Sasuke would be interested in. Their coach's wife being pregnant was not one of these things. “What about the tomorrow's training?” Naruto inquired.

“I'll try to get Kakashi to come, I'll text Shikamaru, and he’ll tell you if I succeeded,” Asuma promised, watching them clean up the gym. “Make this shower quick, okay?”

“No problem,” Naruto promised, ushering the team into the locker room. “We're out of here in ten minutes tops,” he ordered his teammates. Kurenai giving birth right now was actually kind of convenient. At least he didn't have to come up with an excuse to make Sasuke not hurt himself.

“Can't you just shower at home?” Shikamaru yawned. “She was supposed to give birth a week from now, Asuma's probably freaking out, he just doesn't want to show it.”

“I have somewhere I need to go after school,” Naruto mumbled out.

“You can just shower at my place,” Sasuke muttered. “Let's go.”

Naruto blinked, realizing that Sasuke assumed that the place Naruto had to be at was Sasuke's home. Sasuke still had no idea that Naruto was attending a cram school. And he didn't know the reasons behind it.

“That won't be possible,” he mumbled out. “Give me just two minutes,” he pleaded, practically running into the shower room.

* * *

Sasuke glared at the blond moron, measuring his still dripping wet hair with narrowed eyes.

“You'll get sick,” he announced, fishing into his sport bag, and throwing his towel over Naruto’s head.

“I don’t get sick so easily,” Naruto whined, rubbing his hair as dry as it was only possible using just the towel. He wasn't right, though. It's not like he wasn't getting sick too often, it was more about him getting well within a day or two. “Let's go,” he commanded, ushering the team outside. Sasuke followed after him, feeling awfully self-conscious. He knew he was worse than before. He had to push himself to keep running, and sometimes he had trouble with catching his breath. It sucked. He didn't have time for any of this bullshit. “Shika, text me as soon, as you know something,” Naruto said. “And guys, we need to chip in for some gift for Asuma. So think about what we could buy him, and let me know at our next meeting,” he added with a smile on his tanned face. “Konohamaru, congratulate your uncle from the team too,” he commanded, making the poor kid almost wet his pants from excitement. He was _so_ excitable when it came to Naruto. It was absolutely ridiculous. Sometimes, Sasuke wondered if Konohamaru being a part of the main lineup wasn't nepotism. He was… an okay player. Nothing special when it came to his skills but he definitely was enthusiastic about football. And about Naruto. He treated the dumbass as if he was some god, and he himself was supposed to be his prophet. _Weird_. _Creepy_. _Ridiculous_.

Sasuke watched Naruto hide the towel into his bag, deciding against reminding the blonde that it _wasn’t_ his towel. Because it was probably unpleasantly damp, and Sasuke could get it back _later_. Besides, it wasn’t like it was the first time they switched their stuff. If Sasuke had to stay at Naruto's for a week, he'd have enough of his own clothes in there that he wouldn't need to pack anything. And Naruto could probably stay at Sasuke’s for the rest of his life without having to borrow anything. At first their parents would make sure to give everything back but they kind of gave up. It was pointless.

Sasuke muted out the excited chatter, and trudged after the rest of the team. He waved goodbye at them, and started listening again only after Naruto _didn't_ turn left.

“Where are you going?” Sasuke blurted out.

“There's something I have to,” Naruto stammered, looking away. Sasuke tilted his head, awaiting the rest of the sentence. It didn't come. “Guys, go without me,” the blonde said to the rest of the team, and didn't say a word until Sasuke and he were left alone, standing near the school gates. “You're going to freak out,” the moron announced.

“Why?” Sasuke deadpanned.

“I have to be at a cram school in an hour and a half,” Naruto confessed as if it was a great sin that no penance would be able to wash away. “I signed there after that game, in which you fractured your rib—”

“And it'll take you an hour and a half to get there? We were supposed to be at the gym for at least one more hour,” Sasuke pointed out, uncertain what he should be freaking out about. “Are you constantly getting late there or are you skipping half of the training?”

“What?” Naruto mumbled out. “I'd never skip practice,” he practically yelled, hitting himself in the chest as if Sasuke's insulted his entire family.

“Then you're getting there late? Seems kind of pointless,” Sasuke noticed in a calm voice.

“ _No_ , it's just fifteen minutes away from here,” the blonde sighed. This sounded way more sensible. Besides, it was Naruto. Naruto was putting his whole heart into almost everything he was doing. “It freaks me out that you're not freaking out.”

“Is there something wrong with the school?” Sasuke carefully asked, once again wondering why he was supposed to freak out.

“ _No_ , there's something wrong with _me_ ,” the moron confessed, sounding as if he gave up on life.

“Don't make me guess what exactly you're referring to,” Sasuke muttered and rolled his eyes. Naruto tried to glare at him but snickered instead. Sasuke too gave up on keeping a straight face and cracked a little smile. A moment later he had to give up on breathing too because Naruto grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and pressed his lips against Sasuke’s. It was merely a smooch that lasted _maybe_ four seconds but it still took Sasuke’s breath away, and left his lips tingling.

It was early evening, they were standing in front of the school gates, and Sasuke wished Naruto hasn't pulled away so fast because right now he wasn't even certain if it really happened.

“I _am_ obsessed with you,” Naruto whispered, his voice throaty and shaky. “I signed up there hoping you'd stop being angry at me before the school year ends, and I wanted to be _ready_ for when.. _if_ it happens,” he confessed.

“Do it again,” Sasuke replied, ignoring Naruto’s ramblings.

“What?” the blonde mumbled out. Sasuke sighed, and pulled the dumbass close again, crashing his lips against his own. Naruto tasted like toothpaste, his lips felt hot, his cheeks and nose cold. “I've just told you I'm a massive creep,” Naruto whispered, his minty breath brushing against Sasuke’s skin.

“It _is_ creepy,” Sasuke admitted, his heart pounding in his chest as if he’s just ran a marathon, and not kissed his… boyfriend. Naruto was his _boyfriend_ , however ridiculous it sounded. “Unsurprisingly creepy,” Sasuke added. He still didn't let go off Naruto, his fingers, which were slowly getting numb from cold, were biting into Naruto's arms, feeling his muscles, tendons and skin underneath his thin jacket. 

“I wasn’t going to stalk you or anything,” the blonde protested, still so awfully, perfectly close. “If I went to the same university as you by _chance_ , I'd be glad but I wasn't going to pick the one I thought you'd choose,” he wailed.

“Somewhat less creepy,” Sasuke decided, still feeling as if his body and mind were two separate entities. It wasn't supposed to feel this right. Whatever this was, it wasn’t supposed to feel as if anything that would come afterwards would feel empty.

“If you dump me,” Naruto mumbled out, “you can tell me where you're going, and I swear I won't follow,” he promised. “I mean,” he stuttered, “it’s not like you've said you wanted me by your side, like, the last time we were talking about this whole deal, you still didn't want me to study at the same place as you,” he blabbered. “So… well,” he sighed.

“I want you there,” Sasuke stated. He jerked up when Naruto removed Sasuke's fingers from his arms and intertwined them with his own. Then Naruto moved, so the ends of theirs sleeves were touching, and the cold air couldn't hit them as hard anymore.

“Then I'll be there,” Naruto promised as if it was something obvious and easy. A huge grin bloomed on his tanned face. “We can go grab a bite before I have to leave,” he offered. Sasuke shook his head. Unlike Naruto, he still hasn't showered, and he doubted he'd be able to feel comfortable with himself knowing that he's just came back from practice. “Sasuke,” Naruto whispered, pulling away a little but it still felt like too much. “Are you absolutely certain that playing football in your state—”

“I'm perfectly fine,” Sasuke hissed.

“I _saw_ you. You're most definitely not _perfectly fine_ ,” the blonde disagreed. “Wouldn't it be better if you waited a week more?” he inquired. “Or even _more_ than a week—”

“ _No_ ,” Sasuke insisted.

“If you won't take it easy _now_ , you might have to take it easy _later_ ,” Naruto pointed out, looking away. “I _know_ that you can push yourself hard enough to make it work but it might end badly, so maybe—”

“ _No_ ,” Sasuke repeated.

“You're so stubborn,” Naruto complained, his hands squeezing Sasuke's harder.

“We can go jogging tomorrow,” Sasuke barked. “And you'll see for yourself that everything is fine,” he sighed.

"This evening," Naruto disagreed. And kind of agreed. "Because if you're thinking about taking a bunch of painkillers so you wouldn't feel the pain, you're stupid. The pain is there for a reason," he lectured.

"I might as well do it today," Sasuke pointed out. "And you wouldn't be any wiser."

"Today I won't believe it," Naruto replied. "I've seen you grab your side, jackass. I'm not blind." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Deep down, he knew Naruto was right. But he also didn't want him to be right. Because Naruto was awful when he was right. And also because if Naruto was right about _this_ , then Sasuke would be forced to miss out more training, and, as evident from today, Sasuke couldn't afford to miss out on any more training. "I swear that I'm thinking about making our team win the championships," Naruto whispered. "And for that we'll need you in your full glory, like, you're right, we have some good players, and not a very good _team_. We'll try to work on that too but if it wasn't going to work, we need to have enough brute force to just push it through. So _please_ , do give yourself some more time," he pleaded.

"You can just switch me for another—"

"I'm not going to switch you for another player," Naruto interrupted him. "There's no reason to, it's just Sai being an ass. You're already good enough to play, even when you're obviously still hurting. So stop worrying about it."

"Half of the things you say is pep talk, and the other half is random bullshit," Sasuke blurted out. Naruto's fingers squeezed his tighter. "I'll give myself three more days," he promised, refusing to look Naruto in the eye.

"Good," the other boy chirped. "There probably won't be too  much training now anyways with Asuma being busy with his wife and kid, so you won't be missing out too much," he continued. "And if you want to," the boy paused for a longer while, "we could go out together."

"And do what?" Sasuke asked. He frowned when Naruto headbutted him. Soft but _still_ , he headbutted Sasuke. "What was that for?!"

"I'm asking you out on a date," Naruto barked.

"By hitting me?" Sasuke hissed.

"Forget it," Naruto decided.

"I can't forget it, I can still feel it on my forehead," Sasuke complained, freeing his hands from Naruto's grasp, and massaging the said forehead. "Other people were gentler about it—"

"And you _didn't_ go out with them, so it obviously didn't work," Naruto grunted.

"How was I supposed to know you were asking me out on a date, and not to do something stupid?" Sasuke inquired. "I'm kind of used to wasting my time with you—"

" _Spending_ your time with me, not _wasting_ ," the blonde wailed. "Damn, you're awful at this," he whined.

"Fine, let's go out," Sasuke relented. "But I seriously doubt it will be any different from all the other times we've went out together," he said.

"And what's so wrong about it?" Naruto barked. Sasuke opened his mouth and closed it again. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing wrong about it. It was perfect actually. It _was_ how Sasuke wanted to waste or _spend_ his free time. Doing random shit with Naruto was fun.

"Nothing," he mumbled out and cleared his throat. "Tomorrow after school?" he inquired before Naruto could whine some more. 

"Yes," the blonde grunted. "So see you tomorrow morning," he said. "Because I'm freezing, my hair is freezing, and I would kill for something warm to eat so if you're not coming with me, I kind of have to say bye," he added. Sasuke nodded. He still had no idea what he should be expecting but he was low key excited for it. And that wasn't something he thought possible after agreeing to not train for a few more days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you wonder why this fic hasn't been updated for so long, it's because I started writing another one, and I thought I was going to update that other one every two weeks or so but things never happen the way I say they will happen, and I suck at being an adult human being but OH WELL
> 
> I was also super busy, so there's that too.
> 
> but heyy, i'm back  
> so hey hi hello


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